Then, in response to Trump’s claim that during their phone call, he asked—in some accounts, warned —Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine, a Kremlin spokesman denied that the two had spoken on the phone at all. (Putin issued his belated congratulations at a news conference.)

Donald Trump, who won the US presidential election last week, has meanwhile already urged his Russian counterpart not to escalate the war. This is what The Washington Post writes.

North Korea ratified a major defense treaty with Russia stipulating mutual military aid, the North’s state media reported Tuesday, as the U.S., South Korea and Ukraine say North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.

Russia had completed the ratification of the treaty last week after it was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June. It is considered both countries’ biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War.