Kremlin Calls Reported Trump-Putin Ukraine Call ‘Pure Fiction’ as Washington Post Report Stands Unconfirmed

The Kremlin's answer was blunt. Asked about a reported phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was completely untrue, pure fiction, simply false information. "There was no conversation," he said.

The report came from The Washington Post, which cited anonymous sources and said a call had taken place. Reuters also reported on the alleged call. According to the Post's account, Trump advised Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine. He was also said to have reminded the Russian president of the substantial American military presence in Europe, and to have expressed interest in further discussions on resolving the war in Ukraine soon.

Peskov did not stop at denial. He called the episode a prime example of the quality of information being published nowadays, even sometimes in reputable publications. He added that Putin had no immediate plans to speak with Trump.

The timing gave the report its force. Putin had congratulated Trump on his election victory on Thursday, and in doing so expressed respect for how Trump reacted to an assassination attempt during his campaign. A follow-up call would have fit naturally after that message.

Trump's side has neither confirmed nor denied the call. When Fox News asked about the Post's report, Trump's communications director, Steven Cheung, said the team does not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders. That leaves the Post's anonymous sourcing standing against a flat Kremlin denial, with nothing on the record to settle it.

The Indian Express notes that Peskov has a record here. He has previously dismissed reports that were later substantiated, and recently called claims of North Korean soldiers in Russia "fake news" despite credible audio and visual evidence to the contrary. The paper also says the swift rejection of this call is likely to raise questions, given that both leaders have signalled openness to dialogue in the past.

On Monday, Peskov also criticised European leaders for continuing to pursue a "strategic defeat" of Russia. He was responding to a question about whether the UK might allow Ukraine to use Storm Shadow long-range missiles against Russian targets.

The Kremlin has consistently said Putin is open to discussing Ukraine with the West, but that does not mean Moscow's demands have shifted. On 14 June, Putin set out a maximalist position for ending the war: Ukraine must give up its ambitions to join NATO and withdraw all troops from the territories within four regions claimed by Russia.

Trump, for his part, claimed during the campaign that he could broker an end to the war "within a day" but offered no detail on how. Reports indicate he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, and Zelenskyy later confirmed the conversation, calling it an "excellent call." Whether a Trump-Putin call happens, and what it contains, will be the first real test of whether talks on ending the war are more than words.