Germany’s Scholz calls Putin and stops Western isolation over Ukraine

CNN
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President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized a call between Germany’s chancellor and Russian President Vladimir Putin for opening a “Pandora’s box” that only serves to undermine efforts to isolate Russia’s leader.

“This is exactly what Putin has wanted for a long time: it is extremely important for him to weaken his isolation, Russia’s isolation, and to have normal negotiations that do not end in anything,” Zelensky said of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call.

The conversation on Friday was the first time Scholz spoke with Putin in two years. It comes as the German leader prepares for a snap election and Europe waits to hear US President Donald Trump’s plan to end war in Ukraine.

On the call, Scholz urged Putin to withdraw his forces from Ukraine and open talks with Kiev that would pave the way for a “just and lasting peace,” the German government said, Reuters reported.

The Kremlin said the talks had come at Berlin’s request and that Putin had told Scholz that any deal to end the war in Ukraine must take into account Russian security interests and reflect “new territorial realities.”

Zelensky and other European officials had warned Scholz against the move, according to sources familiar with the matter, who believed it was more for domestic consumption, Reuters reported.

Facing a snap election on February 23, Scholz’s Social Democrats are coming under pressure from pro-Russia populist parties on both sides of the political spectrum who argue the government has not deployed enough diplomacy to end the war, according to Reuters.

“The chancellor called on Russia to show willingness to enter into negotiations with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace,” a German government spokesman said in a statement, Reuters added.

“He underlined Germany’s unbroken determination to support Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression for as long as necessary,” the spokesman added, Reuters said.

However, Ukraine said that phone calls with Putin did not add any value to the path to achieving a “just peace” in Ukraine. “This (call) allowed Russia not to change anything in its policy, not to do anything essentially, and that is exactly what led to this war,” Zelensky said in his evening speech.

The call comes in the week after Trump was elected as the next president of the United States. He has suggested he could quickly end the war without explaining how, and he has repeatedly criticized the extent of Western economic and military aid to Kiev.

“It sends a bad signal, especially after Trump’s election,” a Western diplomat told Reuters, noting that their country had told Berlin it was not a good idea. “My hope is that Scholz can now say to his voters ‘look, I’ve done it and it’s a waste of time because Putin is not open to anything’. But of course (it’s a) question of how Russia it purrs.”

The Kremlin said Putin had told Scholz that Russia was willing to look at energy deals if Germany was interested. Germany was heavily dependent on Russian gas before the war, but direct shipments ceased when pipelines under the Baltic Sea were blown up in 2022.

Scholz plans to brief Zelensky, Germany’s allies, partners and the leaders of the European Union and NATO on the outcome of Friday’s call, German officials said, according to Reuters. Putin and Scholz agreed to stay in touch, they added.

Ukraine is facing increasingly difficult conditions on the front lines in its east amid arms and manpower shortages as Russian forces make steady advances.

A separate German official told Reuters that Scholz had told Putin that the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia for combat missions against Ukraine was seen as a serious escalation and widening of the conflict.

Zelensky says North Korea has 11,000 troops in Russia and that some have suffered casualties in fighting with Ukrainian forces currently occupying territory in Russia’s southern Kursk region.

Germany has given Ukraine a total of 15 billion euros in financial, humanitarian and military aid since the start of the full-scale war, making it Kyiv’s second-biggest backer after the United States, according to Reuters.

The future of US aid to Ukraine is unclear after Trump’s election victory.

Scholz and Putin last spoke in December 2022, 10 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, plunging relations with the West into their deepest freeze since the Cold War, Reuters added.

This is a developing story and will be updated.