Then, in response to Trump’s claim that during their phone call, he asked—in some accounts, warned —Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine, a Kremlin spokesman denied that the two had spoken on the phone at all. (Putin issued his belated congratulations at a news conference.)

The Kremlin has dismissed reports suggesting a recent phone conversation between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump regarding the Ukraine conflict. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov labeled these claims as "pure fiction,

Donald Trump reportedly told Vladimir Putin not to escalate the situation in Ukraine, only for Moscow to dismiss the reports as 'pure fiction'.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday for the first time in nearly two years as the German leader gears up for a snap election and Europe waits to hear Donald Trump’s plan for ending the war in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what appeared to be the first conversation with the sitting leader of a major Western power in nearly two years