German Chancellor Scholz promises to continue talks with Putin
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he would continue to try to achieve an end to a full-scale war against Ukraine through talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tagesspiegel reported.
"I will also be talking to Putin on the phone again, because we have to talk to each other. It is Putin who must withdraw troops from Ukraine and stop this terrible senseless war, which has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives," Scholz said.
According to the German Chancellor, as long as Russia continues the war, the current situation will not change.
He recalled that his calls to Putin "were not impolite in tone," but the Russian president has repeatedly made it clear that he wants to "annex parts of a neighboring country by force," which is "unacceptable."
"Sometimes we also discussed specific issues such as the exchange of prisoners, grain exports from Ukraine and the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, but it is important for me that the negotiations always return to the current topic: how can the world get out of this terrible situation? The prerequisite for this is obvious: the withdrawal of Russian troops," the German Chancellor added.
The last time Scholz spoke with Putin was in early December 2022. In a conversation that lasted about an hour, the Chancellor called for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine to be found as soon as possible.