Putin and Trump may have spoken more than twice, Kremlin says
Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said that he wants the three-year conflict in Ukraine to end and has warned of the risks of it escalating into a world war between the United States and Russia.
There have so far been two announced phone calls between Putin and Trump this year — on Feb. 12 and on March 18 — though there has been speculation about much more frequent contact, and also reports that they spoke before Trump was elected last year.
When asked by the most prominent Kremlin correspondent for state television about remarks by Trump that indicated there may have been more than two calls, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said information had been released about those calls he knew of.
«Listen, we inform you about the conversations that we are aware of. But we can't rule out everything else,» Peskov said.
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State television's Pavel Zarubin then asked: «So all sorts of nuances are possible as they say?» to which Peskov replied: «Well, that is how I would answer your question.»
The contacts between Trump and Putin have spooked European leaders who fear the United States could be turning its back on Europe in the hope of striking a peace deal with Russia as part of some broader grand bargain encompassing oil prices, the Middle East and competition with China.
Trump told the Washington Examiner that he had been speaking to the Russian leader for weeks.
Before the contacts with Trump, Putin last spoke to a sitting U.S. president in February 2022, when he and Joe Biden spoke shortly before the Russian leader ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward in his 2024 book «War» reported that Trump had direct conversations
