US President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and urged him not to escalate the war in Ukraine, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

Trump made the call from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday, just days after his stunning election victory over Democratic rival Kamala Harris, the report said.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, would not confirm the exchange, telling AFP in a written statement that “we do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”

The outlet, citing multiple people familiar with the call who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported that Trump reminded Putin of America’s sizable military presence in Europe.

They said he also expressed interest in further talks to discuss “resolving the war in Ukraine soon”.

Trump’s election will have a major bearing on the nearly three-year conflict in Ukraine, as he insists on a quick end to the fighting and questions Washington’s multibillion-dollar support for Kiev.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Trump on Wednesday, and Republican billionaire supporter Elon Musk also joined them on the call.

The outgoing Democratic administration of President Joe Biden has confirmed that it will send as much aid as possible to Ukraine before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

On Sunday, Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the White House was looking to “put Ukraine in the strongest possible position on the battlefield so that it is ultimately in the strongest possible position at the table negotiations”.

That would include using the remaining $6 billion in funding available to Ukraine, Sullivan said.

Read moreRussia and Ukraine launch record drone strikes overnight

“You lose your allowance”

The Russian government gave a cautious but largely positive response to Trump’s return, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying on Sunday: “The signals are positive … At least he is talking about peace, and not confrontation.”

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to end it quickly Ukraine war — even before he was sworn into office — but without elaborating on his thinking.

Trump and his allies have criticized U.S. funding for Ukraine, while suggesting it helps fund a corrupt nexus of pro-war defense companies and foreign policy hawks.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., shared a clip on Instagram on Saturday showing Zelensky standing next to the president-elect with the caption: “POV (point of view): You have 38 days to lose your allowance.” .

Any quick deal in Ukraine will require Kiev to cede some of the territory it lost to Russian invaders in southern and eastern Ukraine.

A former Trump adviser, Bryan Lanza, told the BBC on Saturday that Ukraine must abandon any ambition to regain Crimea, for example, which was seized by Russia in 2014.

He said the US priority was “peace and stopping the killing”, although Trump’s transition team clarified that he was not speaking for the president-elect.

Kiev, although facing a manpower shortage and uncertainty over US support, has strongly opposed giving up territory, and its European allies and arms suppliers such as Britain and France are known to be concerned about unilateral moves by to Trump.

Zelensky said giving up land or meeting other demands from the Kremlin would only embolden Putin and provoke more aggression, a view shared by many. European allies.

Trump “briefly raised the issue of land” in his call with Putin, the Post reported, without further details.

In recent months, both sides in the war have made moves seen as possible efforts to gain leverage ahead of possible negotiations, with Ukraine seizing a chunk of Russian territory and Moscow’s troops making advances into Ukraine.

This weekend brought the biggest drone attacks ever from both sides.

Russia shot down 145 drones in Ukraine overnight, Zelensky said, while Russia said it shot down 34 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow on Sunday.

(AFP)