WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President-elect Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday and discussed the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Trump advised Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of “Washington’s large military presence in Europe”, the Post reported.
During the election campaign, Trump said he would find a solution to end the war “within a day,” but he did not explain how he would do that.
Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday, according to media reports.
On Friday, the Kremlin said Putin is ready to discuss Ukraine with Trump but that does not mean he is willing to change Moscow’s demands.
On June 14, Putin laid out his terms for the end of the war: Ukraine would have to abandon its NATO ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from all of the four regions claimed by Russia.
Ukraine rejected that, saying it would be tantamount to conceding, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has put forward a “strategy for victory” that includes requests for more military support from the West.
