Russia has refused to confirm or deny a report by the American news outlet CNN alleging that U.S. President Donald Trump once threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with bombing Moscow to prevent a war with Ukraine.
Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Wednesday that Moscow cannot verify the authenticity of CNN’s report, which cited audio recordings of Trump claiming during a private fundraising event for his 2024 campaign that he had warned Putin he would “completely bomb Moscow” if Russia attacked Ukraine.
“We cannot confirm or deny this, even if I wanted to… Whether it is false or not, we do not know. There has been a lot of fake news lately,” Peskov told Reuters when asked about the article.
CNN’s report did not specify when the alleged threat was made but indicated it was an effort to prevent the Russian invasion of Ukraine before the conflict began in 2022.
Separately, The Washington Post previously reported that Trump spoke with Putin by phone in November last year, after winning the presidential election, warning him against escalating the conflict in Ukraine—claims Kremlin officials dismissed as “pure fiction.”
The first publicly known phone call between the two leaders took place on February 12.
Trump, who had pledged to end the war in Ukraine swiftly, has expressed frustration with Putin in recent months as the conflict enters its fourth year.
CNN also reported that Trump made a similar warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping, threatening to bomb Beijing if China attempted to invade Taiwan.
