German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin They had their first telephone conversation this Friday in almost two years. The head of the German Government has appealed to Moscow’s willingness to “negotiate” with kyiv “a just and lasting peace.”
Scholz has condemned the “war of aggression” started by Putin himself in February 2022 and has complained directly to his interlocutor to end the offensive and withdraw the troopsaccording to a brief statement from the German Government.
The chancellor took the opportunity to underline Germany’s “unwavering” determination to continue supporting Ukraine “as long as necessary”. Thus, it suggests that it will continue to provide both political and military aid despite the tensions that have arisen in Berlin in recent months.
For its part, the Kremlin, which has emphasized in its speech that the initiative came from the head of the German Government, has said that it was a “frank” and “detailed” conversation, in which Putin reiterated some of the positions he has been defending in recent yearsas the current “crisis” derives from NATO’s “aggressive” policy and the associated risks to Russia’s national security.
Putin maintains that “he has never refused” to negotiatealthough he has reiterated conditions that kyiv has always indicated as unaffordable. Thus, he has called to “take into account the interests of the Russian Federation in the field of security” and to assess the “new territorial realities”, in a veiled allusion to the sovereignty that Moscow now claims to have over regions of eastern Ukraine.
The president too has regretted the “unprecedented degradation” of bilateral relations between Russia and Germany, alluding to the already shelved collaboration in the field of energy. Putin has expressed his willingness to resume it “if the German side shows interest.”
The call, which comes in the midst of movements to reconfigure the European role in the face of Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House, has been preceded by a contact between Scholz and the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky. The Government has also announced that the chancellor would speak a second time with Zelensky after speaking with Putin.
Furthermore, Scholz has expanded this network beyond the leaders of Ukraine and Russia. The Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, has confirmed on social networks that the German Chancellor has called him to inform him of his latest contacts and has been “satisfied” with the German positionto the extent that it implied a condemnation of the invasion and took into account the premise “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
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