The White House clarified that it was not US President Donald Trump who spoke with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, but Special Representative Stephen Vitkov. This was reported by UNN with reference to The Guardian.
The White House clarified that Steve Vitkov, not US President Donald Trump, spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin
The confusion was caused by Trump's publication on social media, in which he praised discussions with the Russian leader and said, "I strongly urged President Putin," which sounded as if he had spoken to Putin personally.
However, it was Vitkov who was in Moscow yesterday. He met with the Russian leadership to discuss the possibility of a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Separately, another element of his initial post, that "thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are completely surrounded by Russian troops" in the Kursk region, drew a strong backlash from Ukrainian sources and military analysts, who called it inaccurate.
As Sean Walker noted earlier, this statement appears to be based on information provided by Putin and is denied by those who are closely monitoring the situation in Kursk.