White House says CNN report on Ukraine phone call is ‘completely false’

CNN reported on Thursday that a call between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden “did not go well.” However, the claim garnered hasty pushback as spokespeople for each of the leaders disputed the story.

“We have breaking news for you in our world lead, a senior Ukrainian official tells CNN that today’s phone call between President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ‘did not go well.’ Our source tells CNN that the two disagreed about the immediacy of a threat between a Russian attack on Ukraine,” said CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“We should note that the White House just released its own readout of that call and there was no mention of President Biden’s warnings or the two presidents’ disagreements,” he added. 

Tapper then shifted to CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance. He told viewers of the program that there was “definitely a disagreement” about the level of risk for Ukraine at the moment.

Chance added that Biden told Zelensky that an invasion would be “virtually certain” when the ground freezes over more. Not long after the program’s airing, the White House disputed the claims and said that the anonymous sources had been “leaking falsehoods” about the call between the leaders.

“President Biden said that there is a distinct possibility that the Russians could invade Ukraine in February. He has said this publicly and we have been warning about this for months. Reports of anything more or different than that are completely false,” tweeted Emily Horne, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

While CNN did not immediately respond to comment, its online report includes the fact that the White House disputed its original article.