The German chancellor and the Russian president last spoke on the phone in December 2022. It was also the last phone call between the head of the Kremlin and a representative of a Western country.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Friday that he was going to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin again after speaking to the Kremlin chief last month for the first time in nearly two years. However, Scholz did not specify when the conversation with Putin should take place. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
“I spoke with the Russian president and I will speak with him again,” Scholz said at a joint press conference with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. According to Scholz, the purpose of such phone calls is to explain to Putin that he can contribute to the end of the war in Ukraine by withdrawing his troops from there.
Scholz spoke to Putin on the phone on November 15. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi criticized this step, saying that it “opened Pandora’s box” and that such communication undermines efforts to isolate Putin internationally.
The German chancellor and the Russian president last spoke on the phone in December 2022. It was also the last phone call between the head of the Kremlin and a representative of a Western country.
Germany is one of the biggest supporters of Kyiv in its defense against the Russian invasion. Scholz promised again that Berlin “doesn’t stop supporting Ukraine”. According to him, it is necessary to make efforts to achieve “sustainable and permanent peace for Ukraine”. Scholz also added that nothing must be decided without the Ukrainians and that Russia must not win this war.
