German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday he was ready to resume contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine “at the right time”.
“It’s been some time since my last phone call. But when the time comes, I plan to talk to Putin again,” Scholz said in an interview published by the daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger.
With regard to the resolution of the conflict: “Russia must understand that this is not about making some kind of cold peace, where the current front line would become the new border between Russia and Ukraine, as this will only serve to putin’s criminal expedition would legitimize.” insisted Olaf Scholz.
“On the contrary, a fair peace must be reached and the precondition for this is the withdrawal of Russian troops” from Ukraine, after the invasion that began in February 2022, he added.
However, the German chancellor declined to say whether this withdrawal should include Crimea, which has been occupied since 2014, saying it is up to Ukraine to define exactly what it wants.
Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin last spoke on the phone for an hour in December 2022.
In that time, the head of the German government urged the Russian head of state to withdraw troops from Ukraine, unsuccessfully, while Vladimir Putin accused the West of pursuing “destructive policies”.
Since then, bilateral relations have reached an all-time low. The war in Ukraine forced Germany into a diplomatic and economic turnaround after decades of closer ties with Russia.
Before the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow was Germany’s main gas and oil supplier.
After the invasion of Ukraine, Germany also decided to invest massively in its armed forces, breaking a long tradition of pacifism in the country after World War II.
Source: DN
