Trump dials Putin, urges him not to escalate war in Ukraine

US President-elect Donald Trump has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin via a phone call and urged him not to escalate the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.

Trump held the call with Putin from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday while he has also spoken to other European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who he talked to on Wednesday shortly after his election victory was confirmed.

Trump has criticized the scale of the Joe Biden administration's approval of military and financial support for Kyiv, while the soon-to-be president has vowed to end the war quickly, without specifying how.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said it was not informed in advance of the call between Trump and Putin.

"We do not comment on private calls between President Trump and other world leaders," Steven Cheung, Trump's communications director, said when asked about the contact between the two leaders.

Kremlin: 'At least he's talking about peace'

The Washington Post, citing several people familiar with the call who spoke on the basis of anonymity, reported that Trump had reminded Putin of the United States' sizable military presence in Europe.

The Post also reported that Trump was keen to have further conversations to talk about "the resolution" of the war soon, in reference to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine which began in February 2022.

On Trump's return to the Oval Office, Moscow spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday that "the signals are positive... At least he's talking about peace, and not about confrontation."

The Biden administration, which will remain in power until Trump's inauguration on January 20, has said they will send Ukraine as much aid as possible while they are still in office.

On Sunday, Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, said the White House aims "to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position on the battlefield so that it is ultimately in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table." Sullivan also confirmed Biden has invited Trump to come to the White House for talks on Wednesday.

You dance with those who are in the room, Scholz says on prospect of working with Trump

Meanwhile, Olaf Scholz's spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit said the German chancellor spoke with Trump on Sunday evening in their first telephone call since Trump won the presidential election.

Scholz offered Trump the opportunity to "continue the decades of successful cooperation between the governments of both countries," Hebestreit said. 

Scholz seems unfazed about the prospect of future cooperation with US President-elect Donald Trump, saying you have to take political situations as they come.

"My principle is always, if I may say so casually: You dance with those who are in the room. And that also applies to the future president of the US," Scholz told a Sunday evening talk show on public broadcaster ARD.

"I'm never naive, but I'm also a bit unflustered," he said. During his first term as president, Trump criticized Berlin for insufficient military spending, the country's trade surplus, and the German-Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2. 

Scholz pointed out that Germany is now spending 2% of its gross national product on defense. This falls in line with NATO guidelines.

The chancellor also made it clear that he expects Trump, who is due to return to the White House in January, to adhere to the commitment made by outgoing President Joe Biden to station US intermediate-range missiles in Germany. 

"This is an agreement we have made with the US. It is in our mutual interest. So I want to accept it," Scholz said.

Musk's 'fool' comment dismissed by Scholz

Scholz also dismissed recent criticism from Trump supporter and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who mocked the chancellor over the collapse of the ruling coalition in Germany. 

Musk had written in German on the social media platform X, which he owns: "Olaf is a fool."

When asked if this bothered him, Scholz replied, "It honors me."

"I don't comment on tech billionaires," the chancellor said. "He is not a head of state, even if one sometimes gets the impression that some tech corporations are more powerful than states."

Scholz is set to face a confidence vote before the end of the year in the Bundestag ahead of a likely snap election in early 2025.