Vladimir Putin (R) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (L) attend a joint press conference following their talks in the Kremlin, 15 February 2022. EPA-EFE/SERGEY GUNEEV/KREMLIN POOL/SPUTNIK / POOL
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken to Vladimir Putin for the first time since December 2022 in a phone call that lasted for about an hour, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a German government source.
Scholz indicated in October that he would be willing to hold talks with Putin to discuss bringing about a just peace in Ukraine, German daily newspaper Die Rheinische Post reported.
The German Chancellor’s Office confirmed the call in a statement on Friday, stressing that Scholz had “condemned the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine” and called on Putin to withdraw his troops from the country.
Scholz “urged Russia to negotiate with Ukraine to achieve a just and lasting peace”, the office wrote, and “emphasised Germany’s unwavering determination to keep Ukraine in the peace process”.
The Kremlin also published a press release on Friday, noting that Putin and Scholz had had “a detailed and frank exchange of opinions about the situation in Ukraine”, with Putin saying that the “current crisis” was the result of “NATO’s long-standing aggressive policy aimed at creating an anti-Russian bridgehead on Ukrainian territory”.
Russia is “still open to renewing the negotiations” that were “broken off by the Kiev regime”, Putin said, adding that a potential deal must take into consideration Russia’s security interests and be guided by “the new territorial realities”.
The Kremlin has not yet commented on the call, which was first reported by Bloomberg sources earlier on Friday.
Addressing the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, on 16 October, ahead of an upcoming summit of EU leaders, Scholz reminded the chamber that Ukraine had consented to Russia taking part in a second Summit on Peace in Ukraine, which Kyiv has said it plans to convene by the end of the year.
“If we are asked whether we too will speak to the Russian president, it is only right, therefore, that we say yes, that is the case,” Scholz said, though he stressed that being willing to engage with Putin did not mean abandoning some clear principles, namely never making decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine.
