Scholz labels call with Putin ‘frustrating’ but he’d do it again

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he’s willing to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin again even though his recent phone call yielded no results.

“It was frustrating,” Scholz told a television station’s end-of-year review programme on Wednesday, “because he simply repeated all his formulas again.”

Despite criticism from Ukraine and Eastern European countries regarding the call, Scholz said it was necessary to make Putin understand that he could not count on Germany reducing its support for Ukraine.

Scholz said he urged Putin to “withdraw troops so that the basis for a peaceful development can emerge.”

Of the call, the chancellor said: “And that must be done, and I will do it again. But we must not be under any illusions about it.”

Scholz, at his own initiative, called Putin in mid-November, the first time since December 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Scholz of opening a “Pandora’s box” with the call.