Russia neither confirms nor denies report of Putin and Trump conversation

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday he could “neither confirm nor deny” reports of a conversation between Russian president Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump, Russia’s state news agency has reported.

Mr Trump said he had spoken to Russian president Vladimir Putin by phone about ending the war in Ukraine, the New York Post reported, the first known direct conversation between Mr Putin and a US president since early 2022.

Mr Trump, who has promised to end the war in Ukraine but not yet set out in public how he would do so, said last week that the war was a bloodbath and that his team had “some very good talks”.

In an interview aboard Air Force One on Friday, Mr Trump told the New York Post that he had “better not say,” when asked how many times he and Mr Putin had spoken.