“My last phone call [Putinam] it was some time ago,” said Scholz in an interview published in the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” newspaper on Friday. “But I plan to talk to Putin again over time.”
The German chancellor’s last conversation with the Russian dictator took place last December.
During the hour-long conversation, Scholz called on Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine, while the Kremlin master once again accused the West of pursuing “destructive” policies.
Since then, the tension in Berlin’s relations with Moscow has only continued to grow, and it was especially exacerbated by the Scholz government’s decision to allow the transfer of German-made heavy tanks to Ukraine after a long delay in January.
In the interview, Scholtz insisted that his goal is still to “actively support Ukraine”, while at the same time “preventing a direct conflict between NATO and Russia”.
He also emphasized that Germany must never act alone and that its actions must always be coordinated with its allies.
When asked about the possibilities of stopping the war through negotiations, Scholz answered that Putin must understand that the war cannot end with “some kind of cold peace”, for example, “turning the current front line into a new border between Russia and Ukraine”.
The chancellor stated that it should be a “just peace”, the prerequisite of which is the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
2023-05-26 07:02:18
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