After a gap of 2 years, German Chancellor Scholz speaks with Vladimir Putin

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephonic exchange on Friday, discussing ways to end the Ukraine war for an hour, according to a Bloomberg report citing sources.
The first direct communication between the leaders in almost two years comes as Ukraine braces for the third full winter under Russian attack, with large parts of the country’s energy infrastructure damaged or destroyed.
This comes after Scholz’s signal about his readiness to make direct contact with Putin for the first time since December 2022. The German Chancellor, however, asserted that that he would liaise closely with the US and European allies ahead of any such phone call.
The German leader, who travels to the G-20 gathering in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, is hobbled politically after his coalition government collapsed this month amid a rift with a junior coalition partner. Scholz’s Social Democrats, which are trailing in polls against Germany’s conservatives, secured a deal this week to hold a snap election on Feb. 23.
In an address to parliament Wednesday, Scholz assured lawmakers that his outgoing administration would stand by its commitment to Ukraine — even as he stood by his rejection of delivering long-range weapons such as Taurus cruise missiles, a decision that’s been criticized by other allies of Ukraine.
The chancellor spoke by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy the same day, pledging “steadfast solidarity” with Kyiv. The two discussed “possible paths to a just peace,” Scholz’s spokesman said.
But direct contact with the Russian leader is a sensitive issue within the European Union, with several governments deriding any overture attempts with Putin as useless. French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to maintain an open line with the Kremlin in the first months of the war fell flat — and irked Kyiv.
One European government official derided Scholz’s move as a useless exercise, while an official from another government said the chancellor is acting from a position of weakness and suggested he would be better off dealing with his domestic travails. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.