Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that the German chancellor Olaf Scholz is opening “Pandora’s Box with the Russian president Vladimir Putin, reports CNN.
He made the criticism following a conversation between two world leaders that took place on Firday, first time in two years. It comes as the German leader gears up for a snap election and Europe waits to hear US President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for ending the war in Ukraine.
Zelensky said, “This is exactly what Putin has been wanting for a long time: it is extremely important for him to weaken his isolation, Russia’s isolation, and to have normal negotiations that will not end in anything.”
Reuters reports, “On the call, Scholz urged Putin to pull his forces out of Ukraine and begin talks with Kyiv that would open the way for a “just and lasting peace,” the German government said.
The Kremlin said the conversation had come at Berlin’s request, and that Putin had told Scholz any agreement to end the war in Ukraine must take Russian security interests into account and reflect “new territorial realities.”
Zelensky and other European officials had cautioned Scholz against the move, according to sources familiar with the matter, who believed it was more for domestic consumption.
Facing a snap election on February 23, Scholz’s Social Democrats are coming under pressure from Russia-friendly populist parties on both sides of the political spectrum that argue the government has not deployed enough diplomacy to end the war, according to media.
“The chancellor urged Russia to show willingness to enter talks with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace,” a German government spokesperson said in a statement.
“He stressed Germany’s unbroken determination to back Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression for as long as necessary,” the spokesperson added.
Ukraine said however that phone conversations with Putin brought no added value on the path to achieving a “just peace” in Ukraine. “This [the call] made it possible for Russia to change nothing in its policy, to do nothing in essence, and this is exactly what led to this war,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
The call comes in the week after Trump was elected as the next US president. He has suggested he could put a swift end to the war, without explaining how, and repeatedly criticized the scale of Western financial and military aid for Kyiv.
“It sends a bad signal especially after Trump’s election,” said one Western diplomat to Reuters, noting their country had told Berlin it was not a good idea. “My hope is that Scholz can now say to his electorate ‘look, I have done it, and it’s a waste of time as Putin isn’t open to anything’. But of course, (it is a) question about how Russia spins it.”
The Kremlin said Putin had told Scholz Russia was willing to look at energy deals if Germany was interested. Germany was heavily reliant on Russian gas before the war but direct shipments ceased when pipelines under the Baltic Sea were blown up in 2022.
However, Scholz plans to brief Zelensky, Germany’s allies, partners and the heads of the European Union and NATO on the outcome of Friday’s call, German officials said, according to Reuters. Putin and Scholz agreed to stay in contact, they added.
Bd-Pratidin English/ Afsar Munna
