The Kremlin has denied reports that have claimed the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, spoke to the US president-elect, Donald Trump, calling the media reports “pure fiction”.

The alleged call was frst reported by The Washington Post. Citing unidentified sources the report said Trump had told Putin he should not escalate the Ukraine war. Reuters also reported on a call citing an unidentified soure.

The WaPo report about a purported phone call “absolutely does not correspond to reality,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said

The Mail Online reports: During the reported call, Trump allegedly advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of ‘Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe’, accorpding to the Washington Post.

But now Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied this call took place. ‘This is completely untrue. This is pure fiction, it’s just false information,’ he said. ‘There was no conversation.’

‘This is the most obvious example of the quality of the information that is being published now, sometimes even in fairly reputable publications,’ Peskov said.

Asked if Putin had plans for any contacts with Trump, Peskov said: ‘There are no concrete plans yet.’

Trump said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours if elected, but has given few details on how he would seek to end the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two. 

Putin congratulated Trump on Thursday, praised him for showing courage when a gunman tried to assassinate him, and said Moscow was ready for dialogue with the Republican president-elect.