Trump spoke to Putin last week (without U.S. State Department interpreters and with no warning to Kyiv) and threatened Moscow against escalation in Ukraine

Speaking without the support of the U.S. State Department and government interpreters, Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin over the telephone on Thursday, several sources told The Washington Post. The American president-elect reportedly “advised [Putin] not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe.”

On Thursday, Trump’s team told CNBC that he’d spoken to roughly 70 world leaders since his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Washington Post reported that Ukrainian officials “did not object to the conversation taking place” when informed about the call with Putin, though Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry later challenged this characterization. On Sunday, ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told reporters that Kyiv got no advance notice about the phone call. “Subsequently, Ukraine could not have endorsed or opposed the call,” he said.