Russia rejects Trump's call and Putin calls for restraint in Ukraine

The Kremlin has rejected media reports that US President-elect Donald Trump had a phone call with Vladimir Putin in which he was said to have warned the Russian president against an escalation of the war in Ukraine.

The call, first reported by The Washington Post on Sunday, is said to have taken place on Thursday.

Trump also reportedly mentioned America's extensive military presence in Europe to Putin.

A Kremlin spokesman said the reports were “pure fiction,” while Trump's team told the BBC it would not comment on the president-elect's “private calls.”

Trump's communications director Steven Cheung told the BBC: “We do not comment on private conversations between President Trump and other world leaders.”

But he said leaders had begun contacting the president-elect.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that a conversation had taken place.

“This is completely untrue, it is pure fiction. That means it is simply incorrect information. There was no conversation,” Peskov said.

Trump has promised to end the nearly three-year war in Ukraine but has not yet spelled out how he plans to achieve that.

Zelensky had previously warned against giving land to Russia, saying that without US help Ukraine would lose the war.

While Peskov spoke to Russian state media on Sunday about “positive” signals from the new US administration, others said they were confident that the future president would not abandon Ukraine.

They include John Healey, the British defense secretary, who said he expects the U.S. to “stay alongside allies like the United Kingdom and stand with Ukraine until Putin's invasion is overcome.”

On Sunday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned during a visit to Ukraine that an end to the war must be sustainable.

“This is a warning to those who say this war must end, so let's end it as quickly as possible, no matter how. How important it is,” he said.

In Washington, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said outgoing President Joe Biden would make the case to Trump that a withdrawal from Ukraine would mean greater instability in Europe.

On Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned that Putin could take advantage of the post-election transition period in the United States to exploit Moscow's advantage in Ukraine.

She called on Berlin and other EU member states to increase aid to Kiev, saying: “We don’t have time to wait until spring. Now is the transition phase that Putin has been waiting for and striving for.”

A dam near the front line in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region was damaged on Monday, according to regional head Vadym Filashkin.

Filashkin said the Kurakhove reservoir dam had been hit by a Russian attack and warned that rising water could “potentially threaten” settlements on the Vovcha River. Russia claimed Ukraine was responsible.

Last week, Russia and Ukraine launched their largest drone strikes since the war began.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it intercepted 84 Ukrainian drones over six regions, including some approaching Moscow, leading to the diversion of flights from three of the capital's major airports.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia fired 145 drones into all parts of the country on Saturday evening, most of which were shot down.

At least six people were killed and 21 others injured in Ukraine on Monday following the latest series of Russian airstrikes.

Russia, meanwhile, said it destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones near the western regions of Kursk and Belgorod. No deaths were reported.

“Every day, every night, Russia unleashes the same terror,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter after Monday’s attack.

“More and more civilian sites are being attacked. “Russia only wants to continue the war, and each of its attacks destroys any diplomatic claims of Russia.”

Zelensky called for “stronger global support” and more weapons to stop Russian aggression.

Elsewhere, Moscow's Defense Ministry said its forces had captured the village of Kolisnykivka in the Kharkiv region.

Russia's territorial gains in October were the largest since March 2022, according to an analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War by the AFP news agency.