The Kremlin is denying reports of a conversation last week between Putin and Trump

The Kremlin on Monday denied reports that President Vladimir Putin spoke last week with President-elect Donald Trump the war in Ukraineand a spokesman for Trump declined to comment on what he called his “private calls” with world leaders.

The Washington Post first reported on Sunday, citing anonymous sources, that the two spoke on Thursday, with Trump advising Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and citing the significant US military presence in Europe.

In a conference call Monday with reporters, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said “there was no conversation” and the report was “completely untrue, it’s pure fiction.”

Asked about the report, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung said: “We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders.”

Speaking at a foreign policy forum Thursday in Russia’s Black Sea city of Sochi, Putin congratulations to Trump on his election victory and praised him for what he said was “courageous” behavior during an assassination attempt on him in July.

Peskov said that “there are no specific plans yet” for a conversation between Putin and Trump. He previously said that contacts between the two before Trump’s inauguration are “not out of the question,” pointing out that Trump said he would call Putin before the inauguration. However, he denied that Russia’s presidential administration or State Department had any contact with Trump’s campaign after the election.

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly said he could quickly end the fighting in Ukraine, but did not provide details on how he would accomplish that.

Russia has intensified attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine as the war nears its 1,000-day mark. For its part, Ukraine sent a massive wave of drones over the weekend that rattled Moscow and its suburbs.