Since his victory in the American presidential election, Donald Trump has increased his calls regarding the war in Ukraine, with the Washington Post even reporting an exchange with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was later denied by the Kremlin.
• Also read: Trump spoke with Putin and warned him against escalation in Ukraine
• Also read: United States: 6 billion for Ukraine before Trump’s arrival
• Also read: Trump’s stance on Ukraine has ‘positive signals,’ Kremlin says
According to anonymous sources cited by the Washington Post, the Republican asked the Russian leader not to provoke an escalation in Ukraine.
A spokesperson for the US president-elect’s transition team said in a statement to AFP that it would not “comment on private calls between President Trump and other leaders”.
However, on Monday, the Kremlin denied the “Washington Post” information, calling it “an invention.”
“This absolutely does not correspond to reality, it is a pure invention”, “it is simply false information”, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
“At the moment, there are no concrete plans” for such a discussion, he said. Last week, the two men said they were ready to talk.
The Kremlin estimated on Sunday that the Republican had sent “positive signals” during the campaign regarding the conflict, since he spoke of a possible “peace” and did not show a “will to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia “.
According to the Washington Post, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin discussed the goal of peace on the European continent and Donald Trump said he hoped to have follow-up conversations to discuss “resolving the war in Ukraine soon.” .
According to Dmitri Peskov, Vladimir Putin repeated last week “that he is open to all negotiations” with the West on Ukraine, but “no signal has been sent” by them.
“If they say that signals will come, we have to wait for them. For the moment, no signal has arrived,” he added.
Donald Trump would also have reminded Vladimir Putin of the extent of the American military presence in Europe.
Exchange Trump-Zelensky
Very critical of the billions of dollars released for Ukraine, Donald Trump had already spoken on Wednesday with Volodymyr Zelensky. An exchange in which billionaire Elon Musk participated.
The Ukrainian president described this telephone exchange as “excellent” and had “agreed to maintain a close dialogue” with Mr. Trump.
But according to a senior Ukrainian source, the two leaders “didn’t really discuss anything substantial, it was a conversation to greet each other.”
For its part, the German Chancellery indicated that Olaf Scholz had spoken on Sunday with Donald Trump and that they both said they were “ready to work together for the return of peace to Europe”.
Foreign policy issues will be on the menu of the meeting between Joe Biden and Donald Trump scheduled in the Oval Office on Wednesday to begin the transfer of power.
The United States will spend the remaining six billion dollars dedicated to Ukraine before Donald Trump comes to power, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday, warning of the risks linked to stopping the American support for Kyiv.
Donald Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20, has regularly claimed to be able to end the war in Ukraine “in one day”, without ever detailing how he would go about it.
But this could probably involve an agreement that would require Kyiv to cede part of its territory to Moscow, a concession impossible to envisage on the Ukrainian side.
This question would have been raised during the interview between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, according to the Washington Post.
On Saturday, Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Junior, shared a photo of Volodymyr Zelensky alongside his father on Instagram. With the caption “POV” (point of view): “you are 38 days away from losing your benefits”, in reference to the billions spent by the United States to help Kyiv.
