White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post to X that Trump “has concluded a positive call with President Putin concerning Ukraine,” but she did not provide further details.
The call comes one day after Trump met with Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago. After the meeting, the leaders said they were “very close“ to a deal. Trump spoke with Putin before that meeting as well.
During a call with reporters, Putin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said the Russian president told Trump in the call that after his meeting with Zelenskyy, Ukraine launched an attack on a presidential residence in the Novgorod region.
Putin said that the attack would not go unanswered and that Russia would reconsider its position in talks to end the Ukraine war because of the events, Ushakov said.
NBC News has reached out to the White House for comment on Ushakov’s remarks about the call.
Zelenskyy responded to the Kremlin’s claim, saying in a post to X that Russia is “using dangerous statements to undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump’s team.” He also called the claim “a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine.”