German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephonic exchange on Friday, discussing ways to end the Ukraine war for an hour, according to a Bloomberg report citing sources.
The first direct communication between the leaders in almost two years, Scholz condemned the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine" and called on Putin "to end it and withdraw troops."
Scholz also said Russia must be willing to "negotiate with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace and stressed Germany's unwavering determination to support Ukraine in its defensive struggle against Russian aggression for as long as necessary," Scholz's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Ukraine President President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Scholz against speaking to Vladimir Putin and said it would reduce the Russian leader's isolation and keep the war going, a source in Ukraine's presidential office said.
A German government spokesperson said Scholz urged Putin to begin talks with Kyiv that would open the way for a "just and lasting peace" as the leaders held their first phone call since December 2022 as the war in Ukraine rages on.
The source in Kyiv told Reuters that Scholz, a close ally of Ukraine during the war with Russia, informed Zelenskiy in advance of his plans to speak to the Russian leader.
This comes after Scholz's signal about his readiness to make direct contact with Putin for the first time since December 2022. The German Chancellor, however, asserted that that he would liaise closely with the US and European allies ahead of any such phone call.
The German leader, who travels to the G-20 gathering in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, is hobbled politically after his coalition government collapsed this month amid a rift with a junior coalition partner. Scholz’s Social Democrats, which are trailing in polls against Germany’s conservatives, secured a deal this week to hold a snap election on Feb. 23.
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