Kyiv ‘unaware’ of Trump-Putin call

KYIV — After unconfirmed reports of a phone call between United States President-elect Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Ukraine said Monday it was not informed of any such call and even doubts it ever took place.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, claimed Monday the call never happened.

“Reports that the Ukrainian side was informed in advance of the alleged call are false. Subsequently, Ukraine could not have endorsed or opposed the call,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said in a statement sent to journalists.

The Washington Post on Sunday published a report, citing anonymous sources, that Trump talked to Putin on Thursday, for the first time since he was elected. He asked Putin not to escalate in Ukraine and reminded him about U.S. troops’ presence on the continent, the sources said, adding that Ukrainians were aware of the call and did not object.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office was also not informed the call happened and even has doubts it did, an official close to Zelenskyy told POLITICO.

POLITICO was unavailable to independently verify whether the call took place.

The Kremlin said it was indeed “made up.”

“It does not correspond to reality … completely false information,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told Russian media on Monday.

Ukraine has repeatedly said that no talks about the settlement of Russia’s invasion should be conducted without Kyiv and has already adjusted its strategy to appeal to Trump’s hard-nosed approach to foreign policy,  offering the use of its natural resources and its battle-hardened troops to secure Europe after the war.

However, Putin saw an opportunity in Trump’s presidency, publicly congratulated him, and declared he would pick up the phone if Trump called.