War in Ukraine: Zelensky: Scholz’s call to Putin opens Pandora’s box

After Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD)’s first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in almost two years, Kiev reacted angrily. “In my opinion, Olaf’s call opens Pandora’s Box,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said emphatically in his evening video message. Berlin had informed Kiev in advance, but this now made further discussions possible.

With his call, Scholz fulfilled Putin’s long-held wish to reduce Russia’s isolation and begin talks that will lead to nothing. Putin had done this for decades, said Zelensky. “That allowed Russia not to change its policy, to do basically nothing, and that led to this war,” the president emphasized.

At the same time, Zelensky reaffirmed that the war should not be frozen with ceasefire agreements, as was the case between 2014 and 2022. “We know what needs to be done and we warn: There will be no “Minsk 3”, we need real peace,” the head of state emphasized, referring to the Minsk peace agreements for eastern Ukraine brokered by Germany and France in 2014 and 2015.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Kiev had previously said that telephone calls with the “dictator” Putin were not helpful in efforts to bring peace in Ukraine. Before his conversation with Putin, Scholz also spoke with Zelensky. It was Scholz’s first conversation with the Kremlin chief since December 2022.

According to government information, Scholz called on Putin to end the war of aggression against Ukraine. Putin, on the other hand, said, according to information from Moscow, that Russia’s interests must be taken into account in order to find a solution to the conflict.