German Chancellor Scholz Says Will Further Hold Phone Talks With Putin Amid Ukraine Crisis

BERLIN, January 29 (Sputnik) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he is set to continue holding phone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine.

“Over the past 11 months, I have spoken with Putin over and over again, as [French President Emmanuel] Macron does. The last call was at the beginning of December. And I will talk to Putin on the phone again because it is necessary to talk to each other,” Scholz told German daily Tagesspiegel on Sunday.

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov previously said that there was no meaningful dialogue between Moscow and Berlin at the moment. Germany’s decision to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine does not bode well for its relations with Russia either, he added.

Scholz specified that phone conversations with Putin “are not marked by any rudeness,” while admitting that their views “are completely different.”

The German chancellor also described the Ukrainian crisis as “utterly unacceptable” and noted that it was not the only topic featured on the agenda of his phone talks with Putin.

“Sometimes it was also about specific issues of prisoner exchanges, grain exports from Ukraine and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” Scholz said.

In the end, the talks must return to the “real question” of how the world can resolve this “terrible situation,” Scholz said, adding that the “obvious” prerequisite for this is the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

Putin and Scholz held their latest phone conversation on December 2, when the Russian leader explained in detail his country’s fundamental approaches to the special operation in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.