Scholz asks Putin to withdraw troops and negotiate

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin on Friday, the first in almost two years, during which he urged the Russian president to withdraw his troops from Ukraine and negotiate with kyiv.

Vladimir Putin reaffirmed that any agreement should reflect “new territorial realities”, according to the Kremlin, which described the exchange as “frank and detailed”.

During this exchange which lasted an hour, according to Berlin, the chancellor asked Russia to demonstrate “will to begin negotiations with Ukraine with a view to a just and lasting peace” and underlined “the “the EU’s unwavering commitment to Ukraine,” according to a statement from the German government.

The chancellery specifies that Olaf Scholz had previously spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that it “will also do so following the meeting with the Russian president”.

The German Chancellor also reiterated to Vladimir Putin “Germany’s determination to support Ukraine for as long as necessary in its defensive struggle against Russian aggression.”

Ukraine denounces appeal

Ukraine denounced on Friday the first telephone conversation in more than two years between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which it considers to be an “attempt at appeasement” towards Moscow.

“Conversations with the Russian dictator alone do not bring any added value to achieve a just peace,” criticized the spokesperson for Ukrainian diplomacy, Georgii Tykhy, in a press release, calling instead for “concrete and strong actions which will force him to peace, and not persuasion and attempts at appeasement.

The last call between the German and Russian leaders dates back to December 2, 2022, some 9 months after the start of the offensive of Moscow’s troops in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Since the Russian invasion, Germany, Russia’s historic energy partner, is the second largest supplier of military aid to kyiv, after the United States, Moscow’s hated rival.

But in recent months, and despite repeated requests from Volodymyr Zelensky, Chancellor Scholz has tirelessly refused to provide kyiv with long-range Taurus missiles – which kyiv considers effective in better defending against daily Russian missile and drone attacks -, fearing an escalation with Moscow.

Time for diplomacy

This refusal, like Mr. Scholz’s rejection of kyiv’s request for an invitation to NATO, has damaged the image of the German leader in Ukraine.

These tensions, exacerbated by the Ukrainian difficulties on the front facing a more powerful Russian army which is advancing in the Donbass (east), also occur in an uncertain global geopolitical context, since the election of Donald Trump to the White House.

The former and future American president has promised in recent months to resolve the Ukrainian conflict “in twenty-four hours”, without ever detailing his plan, and his victory has made Ukrainians fear that American support for their country will fade.

For his part, Mr. Scholz called for redoubled efforts to end the conflict through diplomacy, including by talking with Vladimir Putin, in consultation with kyiv and this country’s allies.

In mid-October, he judged that the time had come “to do everything – in addition to clearly supporting Ukraine – to find a way to prevent this war from continuing.”

These discussions should respect “clear principles”, he stressed: “there will never be decisions taken over the head of Ukraine, and never without consultation with our closest partners”, had -he said.

Nothing about Ukraine, without Ukraine

Poland’s prime minister on Friday welcomed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that nothing could be decided on Ukraine without the war-torn country’s participation.

“I received a phone call from Chancellor Scholz who informed me of his conversation with V. Putin. I was pleased to hear that the Chancellor not only unequivocally condemned Russian aggression, but also reiterated the Polish position: nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” Donald Tusk wrote on the social network

Election campaign

Many Western leaders – Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, etc. – with the notable exception of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, refuse to speak to the Russian president.

At the beginning of November, Vladimir Putin regretted that Western leaders had “stopped” calling him.

“If one of them wishes to resume contacts, I have always said it and I want to repeat it: we have nothing against that,” he said at the Valdai forum.

Russia regularly repeats that it is open to peace negotiations, but with “concessions” from kyiv: the cession of the Ukrainian territories that Moscow annexed in 2022 without fully controlling them. A condition currently considered unthinkable in Ukraine.

The conflict with Russia has led more than a million Ukrainian refugees to seek refuge in Germany, and thousands of Russians also live in Berlin, making it the informal capital of Russian exiles.

He also pushed Olaf Scholz for a historic shift in Germany’s defense policy, resulting in a massive increase in military spending, in a country largely marked by pacifism.

Military and financial support for kyiv and Germany’s defense policy will be one of the subjects of the lightning electoral campaign which should lead the country to early legislative elections on February 23.

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