Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted in a conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that Moscow’s security interests be taken into account in resolving the Ukraine conflict, according to the Kremlin.
Putin and Scholz spoke by phone on Friday for about an hour, their first direct conversation in nearly two years.
Relations between Russia and NATO countries, including Germany, have been severely strained since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin announced after that call that any possible agreements to resolve the conflict must be based on new territorial realities.
Russia has made claims on about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean Peninsula, which was occupied in violation of international law in 2014. The Kremlin’s claims include areas of the country that remain under the control of Ukrainian forces.
According to Moscow, Scholz and Putin had the exchange about the war in Ukraine at Germany’s initiative.
Putin expressed his openness to continuing the negotiations to resolve the conflict – but on the conditions already set out by Moscow, according to the Kremlin.
Those conditions include Ukraine renouncing its aspirations for NATO membership and recognizing the loss of the territories claimed by Russia.
The Ukrainian government has categorically rejected those demands.
According to the Kremlin, Putin told Scholz that the war was a consequence of years of aggressive NATO policy. Putin accused the alliance of seeking to turn Ukraine into a deployment zone directed against Russia.
In the conversation with Scholz, Putin also noted an unprecedented deterioration in Russian-German relations “as a result of the unfriendly course of the German authorities,” the Kremlin added.
Putin reportedly told Scholz that Russia had previously always honoured contracts for energy exports to Germany, and is ready to resume mutually beneficial cooperation.
Putin and Scholz also discussed the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, according to the Kremlin press service, and both sides agreed that their advisors should maintain contact.
