NEW DELHI: Russia appeared to be buying into US President Donald Trump’s claim that he mediated the “ceasefire” in the India-Pakistan military conflict that followed India’s Operation Sindoor strikes on terrorist camps in Pakistan.According to President Vladimir Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov, the issue figured in the “highly productive and positive” talks that Putin had with Trump on Wednesday. In his account of the conversation, Ushakov said other than Ukraine, a number of other international issues were raised “as well as the armed conflict between India and Pakistan, which has been halted with the personal involvement of President Trump”.Putin strongly condemned the Pahalgam attack and also backed India’s efforts to bring perpetrators to justice. However, Ushakov’s remark about Trump’s role is unlikely to go down well with Indian authorities who have repeatedly denied that the US or any other country brought the conflict to an end. India also rejected Trump’s offer of mediation on the Kashmir issue, saying it will always engage bilaterally with Pakistan.External affairs minister S Jaishankar had said earlier that while American leaders were in touch with India and Pakistan, the pause in fighting was directly negotiated by the Indian and Pakistani armies, after Pakistan reached out to India for a dialogue. US secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick had later said on oath in a US court that Trump had used trade to avert a full-scale war between the “nuclear armed” countries.Putin is likely to visit India later this year for the annual India-Russia summit. Before that, as reported by TOI on May 26, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov will travel to India later this month to finalise agenda for the summit.