Vladimir Putin has said that NATO should accept “new territorial realities” ahead of any talks to end the war he started, during a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that has sparked concern from Kyiv.
In the first call between the leaders since December 2022, Putin repeated Kremlin rhetoric that the “current crisis” was caused by “many years of aggressive NATO policy aimed at creating an anti-Russian bridgehead on Ukrainian territory,” according to a Kremlin readout.
Putin also noted how NATO and the West were guilty of “ignoring the interests of our country in the field of security and trampling on the rights of Russian-speaking residents.” Newsweek has contacted the German Foreign Ministry for comment.
Any negotiations should take into account Russian interests and “proceed from new territorial realities, and most importantly, eliminate the root causes of the conflict.”
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Scholz is facing political turbulence within Germany where there will be a snap election on February 23. The center-left coalition he leads faces criticism from Russia-friendly parties that he has not engaged in enough diplomacy to end the war.
The Kremlin said the conversation was at the request of Berlin, which issued its own statement about the call, and that Scholz had “condemned the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and called on President Putin to end it and withdraw troops.”
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the phone call risks opening a “Pandora’s box,” which could play into Putin’s hands as he seeks to end the international isolation he faces.
“It is extremely important for Putin to loosen his isolation,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. The Ukrainian leader added that the call with Scholz “made it possible for Russia to change nothing in its policy, to do nothing in essence.”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also expressed concern, issuing a statement that said “long conversations are a resource that Putin has been using for more than 20 years to achieve his interests.”
“Talk only gives Putin hope for easing international isolation,” the post said, according to a translation. “What is needed are concrete strong actions that will force him to peace, and not persuasion and attempts at appeasement.”
An unnamed Western diplomat told Reuters that the phone call “sends a bad signal especially after Trump’s election,” referring to the U.S. president-elect’s disdain for further Washington aid and his call for an end to the war.
The unnamed diplomat said that Scholz might present the call to his electorate to show that “Putin isn’t open to anything.”
