German leader Olaf Scholz talks to Vladimir Putin for the first time in 2 years

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in nearly two years, as the Western power position for an incoming Trump administration has made ending the Ukraine war a priority.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that “Olaf’s call, in my opinion, is a Pandora’s box” because resuming contacts with Western leaders was “exactly what Putin has wanted for a long time” – ending Russia’s isolation.

The call came at a critical time for Ukraine, with Russian troops intensifying their attacks and advancing into Ukrainian territory at a faster pace than at any time since 2022.

Trump’s victory in last week’s US presidential election has also raised doubts about future US aid to Kiev. The president-elect promised before the Nov. 5 vote to broker a “fair and quick deal” to end the war.

Zelenskyy cast doubt on what any negotiations with Putin could achieve, given the Russian leader’s experience of engaging in negotiations that “lead to nothing, as he has done for decades. This allowed Russia to not change anything in his policy, to do nothing substantial, and in the end it led to this war.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov praised Scholz’s “political willingness to hear (Russia’s) position first-hand” and described the discussions as “detailed and open”, while acknowledging there were no “divisions of opinion”.

Putin repeated demands he made earlier this summer as a precondition for talks, Peskov said. These include Ukraine handing over control of four partially occupied eastern provinces to Russia, a complete lifting of Western sanctions against Moscow and a pledge by Kiev to no longer seek Nato membership or ever develop nuclear weapons. Russia also continues to pursue what it calls the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, two vague goals it set out at the beginning of the invasion.

“Putin told Scholz in detail how we see what is going on and how the situation could possibly develop. Scholz went back to his position, which is well known and is repeated several times a day as a mantra by all European representatives,” said Peskov.

Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said the German leader “condemned the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and called on President Putin to end it and withdraw his troops”.

He added that the chancellor also stressed Germany’s “firm determination” to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression “for as long as necessary”.

Officials said Scholz and Putin had “agreed to remain in contact”.

The call also came at a difficult time for Scholz, who last week pulled the plug on his coalition government, paving the way for a snap election on February 23 next year. Current opinion polls suggest that his Social Democrats (SPD) are headed for a heavy defeat.

Scholz has been pushing in recent months for another Ukraine peace conference, which Russia would ideally attend. This would follow the conference held in Switzerland last summer, where Russia was not present.

The German leader’s last physical meeting with Putin was in Moscow just days before he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But in recent days, Scholz stressed that he was ready to talk to Putin and was waiting for the right moment.

Berlin said Scholz called Zelenskyy before Friday’s call and would do so again after it.

German officials said that in his conversation with Putin, Scholz particularly condemned the Russian airstrikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, saying the war had brought “death, suffering and destruction to Ukraine for almost 1,000 days”.

They said he also made it clear that the deployment of North Korean soldiers on combat missions in Russia represented a “serious escalation and widening of the conflict”.

The officials said Scholz had stressed the “long-term nature” of Germany’s support for Ukraine and had told Putin he “cannot count on time being on his side”.

Berlin will inform its allies and partners as well as the leaders of the EU and NATO about the content of the conversation, government sources say.

Germany is the second largest provider of military aid to Ukraine after the United States, having donated nearly 30 billion euros to the country since the start of the war.

Last month, Scholz pledged an additional 1.4 billion euros in military aid to Ukraine before the end of the year. The package, offered together with Belgium, Denmark and Norway, includes Iris-T air defense systems as well as tanks, armored vehicles, combat drones, radar systems and artillery ammunition.

However, Scholz has rejected Ukrainian demands to supply German Taurus cruise missiles, which have a range of up to 500km, saying such a move could lead to Germany becoming a party to the war.

Many in Scholz’s SPD are also worried about the growing signs of war weariness among German voters. The far-right Alternative for Germany and the left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, both demanding an immediate halt to German arms deliveries to Ukraine and calling for an end to the war, have seen their support rise in recent months.