Calling it “completely false”, Moscow today rejected claims of a phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump last week. A report by US’s Washington Post had claimed on Sunday that Trump had called up Putin, and that the two leaders had discussed the conflict in Ukraine.
“This is completely false information,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said today, adding that there has been no phone call whatsoever, between the Russian President and his US counterpart.
In its report, now flagged as ‘fake news’ by Moscow, The Washington Post had claimed that Donald Trump had called Vladimir Putin from his residence-cum-resort Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. The call was reportedly made on Thursday, a day after Trump and his close aide Elon Musk had spoken to Ukraine’s Zelensky.
According to the Washington Post report, which was based on ‘anonymous sources familiar with the matter’, Trump had allegedly “reminded Putin” of America’s sizable military presence in Europe. The report went on to claim that Trump had allegedly expressed an interest in further conversations with Putin to discuss “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon.”
DONALD TRUMP CALLS UKRAINE’S ZELENSKY
Notably, in his victory speech after the 2024 US Election result was declared last week, Donald Trump had said that “I will not start wars, I will help end them”, and within a few days of winning the presidential election, President-elect Trump had called his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky.
After the phone call last Wednesday, President Zelensky had shared a post on X which read: “I had an excellent call with President Trump and congratulated him on his historic landslide victory – his tremendous campaign made this result possible.”
Notably, that phone call was attended by Elon Musk too. Elon Musk was with Donald Trump at the President-elect’s residence and luxury resort Mar-a-Lago. During the phone call, Donald Trump reportedly handed the phone over to Elon Musk and supposedly asked the SpaceX founder to join the call with President Zelensky.
It is not known yet, if they discussed any change in policy the United States has towards Ukraine.
According to the news report by Axios, there were two surprises that day – the first being that Elon Musk spoke with Zelensky, and the second, that Zelensky was reportedly “somewhat reassured by what he heard.” This shows just how important and influential a role Elon Musk could end up playing in the Trump administration 2.0.
ELON MUSK’S POSSIBLE ROLE
The report further stated that the phone call between Trump, Musk, and Zelensky lasted for nearly half-an-hour. After being congratulated by Zelensky, Mr Trump reportedly said he will support Ukraine, but didn’t reveal much else.
Elon Musk then reassured President Zelensky that he will continue to help Ukraine via his Starlink satellite constellation. Since the Russian invasion in 2022, Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system has provided Ukraine with significant frontline advantage by allowing its armed forces to share real-time drone coordinates, data and footage between units. It also gave Ukraine’s military communications support in areas where mobile phone networks were destroyed.
Zelensky and Trump had met recently in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meet in September. The two leaders had discussed ways in which the war with Russia could end and a diplomatic solution be found. “I promise you will be happy with me,” Trump had reportedly told Zelensky at that meeting.
PUTIN AND ZELENSKY’S DEMANDS
The Russian president had recently demanded that Ukraine withdraw from swathes of its eastern and southern territory as a precondition to peace talks. The Washington Post reported that people familiar with “Thursday’s call” said Trump had briefly raised the question of land with Putin.
President Zelensky has said there should be “no concessions” to Putin. Ceding land or giving in to any of Moscow’s other hard line demands would only embolden the Kremlin and lead to more aggression, President Zelensky had said.
The outgoing Democratic administration of President Joe Biden has confirmed that it will send as much aid as possible to Ukraine before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
On Sunday, Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the White House aims “to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position on the battlefield so that it is ultimately in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table.”
This would include using the remaining $6 billion of funding for Ukraine available, Mr Sullivan said.
