Kremlin denies Trump and Putin call discussing Ukraine – as Biden to urge president-elect ‘not to walk away’ from Kyiv
The Kremlin has denied Donald Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin in a phone call the day after the presidential election.
The US president-elect reportedly urged the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of America’s sizeable military presence in Europe during the conversation on Thursday, according to The Washington Post and Reuters, citing sources familiar with the call.
According to several other sources, the pair went on to discuss the goal of peace on the continent, as well as the prospect of a further call soon to look into the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine.
Follow live: Putin has no plans to speak to Trump
But on Monday, the Kremlin denied the reports and spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin has no specific plans to speak to Mr Trump at present.
“This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it’s just false information,” Mr Peskov said. “There was no conversation.”
Asked if Mr Putin had plans for any contact with Mr Trump, Mr Peskov said: “There are no concrete plans yet.”
On Friday, the Kremlin said Mr Putin was ready to discuss Ukraine with Mr Trump – but that did not mean he was willing to alter Moscow’s demands – namely that Ukraine drops its ambitions to join NATO and surrenders the four territories currently held by Russia.
The Washington Post said two sources indicated the Ukrainian government was informed of the call between Mr Trump and Mr Putin – and did not object to the conversation taking place.
However, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it was “impossible” that Ukraine would have endorsed such a call and that reports otherwise were “false”.
When asked about the call, Mr Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”
Trump at his election watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center. Pic: AP
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden, who will hand over power on 20 January, will warn Mr Trump and Congress not to abandon Ukraine, according to one of the president’s top officials.
The president-elect and sitting president will meet on Wednesday in the Oval Office, a week after Mr Trump beat Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the election.
In an interview with CBS News, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said: “President Biden will have the opportunity over the next 70 days to make the case to the Congress and to the incoming administration that the United States should not walk away from Ukraine, that walking away from Ukraine means more instability in Europe.”
President Joe Biden walks to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. Pic: AP
Under Mr Biden, Washington has provided tens of billions of dollars of military and economic aid to Ukraine – funding that Mr Trump, and some of his supporters, have repeatedly criticised and rallied against.
Mr Trump insisted last year that Mr Putin never would have invaded Ukraine if he had been in the White House at the time and has repeatedly said he could settle the war “in one day” if he was re-elected again.
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy when they met in September. Pic: Reuters
On Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said strength and diplomacy must work together to bring the two-and-a-half-year war to an end.
“We understand very clearly that diplomacy has no prospects without strength,” he said.
“But without a clear understanding of diplomatic goals, weapons alone will not do the job. That’s why strength and diplomacy must work hand in hand.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
How Trump won the election
Read more:
Scale of Russia’s losses in Ukraine revealed
Tributes paid to Briton killed fighting in Ukraine
How big a win was election for Donald Trump?
It comes as both Russia and Ukraine launched “record” drone attacks on each other overnight on Saturday, injuring a woman and temporarily halting air traffic at some of Russia’s busiest airports.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Russia launched 145 drones overnight, according to Ukraine, 62 of which were shot down, as the two countries attacked each other.
Russia’s defence ministry said 70 drones were shot down in its territory, including 34 over the outskirts of the capital Moscow.
Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch, two Wall Street Journal reporters and the publication’s owner, News Corp.
The US president has accused the named individuals of defamation, claiming they acted with malicious intent and caused him overwhelming financial and reputational harm.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Miami, seeks at least $10bn (£7.5bn) in damages.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr Trump called the lawsuit “historic legal action” which was filed on behalf of himself and all Americans who he said will “no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media”.
“I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case,” he wrote.
It comes after Mr Trump claimed that a letter he allegedly wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “fake” and said he would sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which first published the story.
The publication had said Mr Trump wrote the letter as part of a collection Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, planned to give him as a 50th birthday present in 2003.
It claimed the message, allegedly from Mr Trump, featured several lines of typewritten text, concluding with: “May every day be another wonderful secret.”
The text was framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, the WSJ claimed. The letter is also said to have featured the signature “Donald”.
Mr Trump immediately denied writing the letter when the WSJ report was published on Thursday night.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Memes of Epstein undermine victims, says lawyer
“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”
Mr Trump ignored questions about Epstein as he signed a cryptocurrency bill at the White House earlier on Friday.
The president’s lawsuit comes as the US government filed a motion to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, who took his own life while awaiting trial in 2019.
In a Manhattan federal court filing, the Department of Justice said the criminal cases against Epstein and Maxwell are a matter of public interest, justifying the release of associated grand jury transcripts.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Trump said attorney general Pam Bondi had been asked to release the transcripts because of “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.
👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈
The justice department previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more.
It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony, which is typically kept secret under US law.
Read more:
All we know about the ‘friendship’
Trump denies writing birthday letter to Epstein
The president has faced increased scrutiny over his alleged friendship with Epstein since his administration’s U-turn on the so-called ‘Epstein files’.
Mr Trump pledged to release files on Epstein during his presidential campaign, as his MAGA movement accused the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in his child sex trafficking operation.
But after a review of the evidence the US government has, the Justice Department recently determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”.
Venezuela releases jailed Americans in prisoner swap
The Trump administration said on Friday that it had negotiated an exchange with Venezuela, resulting in the release of 10 jailed Americans.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the prisoners, who had been held in the South American country, were “on their way to freedom”.
Men in the CECOT jail in EL Salvador. Pic: Reuters
In return, 252 Venezuelan migrants being held in El Salvador have been freed, the Venezuelan government said.
They had been held in the notorious maximum security CECOT prison after being deported by the US.
US
Trump denies claim he wrote birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein – and says he has ordered release of more case files
Donald Trump has called an alleged letter he wrote to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “fake” and said he will sue the “ass off” Rupert Murdoch, who owns the paper that first published the claim.
In multiple posts on Truth Social, the US president accused The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) of fabricating the letter that it claimed was written by Mr Trump as part of a collection of letters addressed to Epstein that his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell planned to give him as a birthday present in 2003.
According to documents seen by the WSJ, Mr Trump’s letter featured several lines of typewritten text framed by what appeared to be a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman.
The paper said the letter concludes “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret”, and featured the signature “Donald”, allegedly drawn across the woman’s waist, meant to mimic the appearance of pubic hair.
Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019. Pic: AP
Responding to the WSJ’s claims, Mr Trump wrote: “The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.
“I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT.”
He said earlier he would also sue the WSJ and News Corp, which Mr Murdoch owns. The WSJ is published by News Corp subsidiary company, Dow Jones & Co.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
From 16 July: Trump: Epstein case is ‘a boring story’
The Justice Department has not responded to the WSJ and the FBI declined to comment.
In a separate post, Mr Trump said he has asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release “any and all pertinent grand jury testimony” in the case of the paedophile financier who was found dead in his Manhattan cell in August 2019, shortly after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.
The release of any documents, Mr Trump said, would be subject to approval by a court.
The justice department has previously said it had around 200 documents relating to Epstein and that the FBI had thousands more. It is unknown how much of this is grand jury testimony – which is typically kept secret under US law.
Ms Bondi responded to the president on X, writing: “President Trump-we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”
👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈
Elon Musk, who claimed last month that Mr Trump appears in the Epstein files, was surprisingly among the first to come to the president’s defence over the WSJ claims.
“It really doesn’t sound like something Trump would say tbh,” the tech billionaire wrote on X, before going on to ask where the evidence against Epstein allegedly held by the FBI had gone.
The Trump administration has come under criticism after the president appeared to U-turn on his own promise to release more information about the Epstein case publicly.
In the run-up to the US election last year, Mr Trump drew on rumours and conspiracy theories that appeared to accuse the Biden administration of suppressing the extent of Epstein’s paedophilia, predatory behaviour and his so-called “client list” – thought to contain names of the rich and famous who conspired with him in a child sex trafficking operation.
Ms Bondi fuelled these rumours in February by telling Fox News that the alleged Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”.
Read more:
Ghislaine Maxwell could challenge imprisonment
Why is Trump fighting with MAGA over Epstein?
The huge impact of Musk’s row with Trump
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In the same month, the justice department released some government documents regarding the case, but there were no new revelations.
After a months-long review of additional evidence, the department earlier this month released a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself, but said no other files related to the case would be made public.
The decision was criticised by many in Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, who Mr Trump later called “weaklings”.
Sky News has contacted the White House for further comment.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike