German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he wants to keep the line of communication open with Russian President Vladimir Putin, EFE news agency reported, citing an interview published this Sunday.
“I will speak to Putin again on the phone, because it is necessary that we talk to each other,” Scholz said in statements to the German newspaper Tagesspiegel in Berlin, adding that the talks that have taken place so far have not been in an “indelicacy.” are. tone”, but Putin maintains the “unacceptable” position of forcibly incorporating parts of Ukraine into Russia.
Scholz added that these talks also discuss specific issues such as the export of Ukrainian grain or the safety of the Zaporijia nuclear power plant, although they “always return to the central issue” of the war and how to get out of the current situation.
For Scholz, it is up to Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine and end a “terribly absurd” war that has already destroyed “hundreds of thousands of lives”.
The chancellor also stressed that he will not allow an escalation leading to war between Russia and NATO, ensuring that this is a point on which there is consensus in his government.
The Kremlin said in response that Vladimir Putin remains open to contacts with his German counterpart. “Putin was and remains open to contacts,” said Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Spain’s EFE news agency, adding that no talks with Scholz are planned so far.
The last conversation between the two leaders took place almost two months ago, on December 2, 2022, in a phone conversation that lasted about an hour, the time Scholz will have served to ask Putin for a diplomatic solution to the situation in Ukraine and to withdraw troops from that country, Berlin said at the time.
Moscow reported that Putin drew Scholz’s attention to the West’s “destructive” policy of “arming” Ukraine and training its army, causing Kiev to give up the idea of negotiating with Moscow.
Source: DN
