German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in nearly two years this week.
Scholz urged Putin during the Nov. 15 call to open negotiations with Ukraine to end the war there.
“He stressed Germany’s unbroken determination to back Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression for as long as necessary,” the spokesperson added.
The Kremlin said it was “extremely positive” that the call was able to occur and said the conversation came at Berlin’s request.
Putin told Scholz that any ceasefire must take Russian security interests into account and reflect “new territorial realities,” suggesting Moscow remains committed to earlier demands that Ukraine cede substantial amounts of its territory to Russia.
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.
“Now there may be other conversations, other calls,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address.
“And this is exactly what Putin has long wanted: it is extremely important for him to weaken his isolation and to conduct ordinary negotiations,” he added.
Zelenskyy said that Moscow had repeatedly used negotiations to advance its interests at Ukraine’s expense, including during rounds of talks over the war with Russian-backed paramilitary groups that erupted in Ukraine’s eastern provinces in 2014.
Germany has given Ukraine a total of 15 billion euros in financial, humanitarian, and military support since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Scholz’s party is facing pressure from both sides of the political spectrum, however, over its lack of diplomacy with Russia throughout the war, and will undergo a snap election in February.
The call also comes in the wake of the U.S. presidential elections, and President-elect Donald Trump has vowed repeatedly to end the war early in his administration and compel both Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table.
German officials said that Putin and Scholz agreed to stay in contact and that Scholz would brief Zelenskyy and Germany’s allies about the outcomes of his call with Putin.
