The Kremlin said on Monday, the 10th of January, that it could neither confirm nor deny whether or not Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken on the phone with US President Donald Trump about how to find a solution to the war in Ukraine, while Trump confirmed on Sunday that talks were progressing but declined to give further details about his contacts with the Russian President, reports Reuters.
The first direct contact between the leaders of the two biggest nuclear powers since Russia launched a full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022 is shrouded in mystery, with both Washington and Moscow giving partial answers and hints.
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, said he believed the US had made progress in its talks with Putin, but declined to give details of any communication with Putin.
Asked whether he had had any conversation with Putin since he became President on the 20th of January or before, Trump replied: “I’ve had it. Let’s put it this way, I have had it… And I hope to have many more conversations. We have to end this war.”
“If we’re talking, I don’t want to tell you about the talks,” Trump said.
The President said that the US has been in contact with both Russia and Ukraine. “We are talking to both sides,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking to reporters in Moscow on Monday, repeated what he said on Sunday about whether or not there had been a phone call between Putin and Trump: “I can’t say anything more. I can neither confirm nor deny it.”
Peskov said on Sunday that “many different communications are emerging”.
US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz also refused to give further details. “Of course, there are a lot of sensitive conversations going on,” Waltz told NBC News.
Putin last spoke to US President Joe Biden in February 2022, shortly before ordering troops into Ukraine.
Moscow now controls an area of Ukraine roughly the size of the US state of Virginia, and troops are advancing at their fastest pace since the early months of 2022.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war and that he will meet with Putin to discuss it, although no date or location for such a meeting has been announced. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would meet Putin at an appropriate time.
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Russia considered Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as possible meeting places.
A number of US officials will travel to Europe in the coming days to discuss the war situation,
including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Special Envoy for the Ukraine War Keith Kellogg.
On the 14th of June Putin announced that Ukraine must renounce its commitment to NATO membership and withdraw its troops from the four regions Russia has declared its own in order to end the war. In November, Reuters reported that Putin was open to talks with Trump but would not give up the occupied territory and wanted Ukraine to abandon plans to join NATO.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters on Friday that he wanted Ukraine to supply the US with rare earths and other minerals in return for financial support for its war effort.