German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke by phone for an hour on Friday, in a discussion that German authorities said centered on prospects for bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.
It appears to have been the first call between Mr. Putin and a sitting leader of a large Western country since late 2022. The Kremlin confirmed the conversation and said Mr. Scholz initiated the call.
Mr. Scholz told Mr. Putin he believes that the deployment of North Korean troops to assist Russia in its war with Ukraine amounts to a serious escalation of the conflict, according to the German government’s summary of the call.
Mr. Scholz called on Mr. Putin to end the war, contending that Russia had not achieved any of its goals more than 1,000 days since its invasion, the summary said. Mr. Scholz condemned Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure and assured Mr. Putin that Germany would continue to assist Ukraine in the long term.
Despite Mr. Scholz’s apparent criticism of Russia’s war, the call suggests that contact between the Kremlin and western powers may increase, following the election last week of Donald J. Trump in the American presidential election.
Mr. Trump has expressed skepticism over continued American aid to Ukraine and has promised to push for immediate peace talks, injecting new uncertainty into the West’s commitment to supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
According to Russian state media, Mr. Putin told his German counterpart that any peace deal in Ukraine must be based on “new territorial realities and address the original causes of the conflict.”
Mr. Putin has repeatedly used these euphemisms to signal that Russia will not hand over Ukrainian territory it has captured and will demand guarantees of Ukrainian neutrality in any peace talks — for instance, an agreement that Ukraine would not join NATO.
The German chancellor spoke with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine before the call with Mr. Putin, and he planned to call Mr. Zelensky again to update him.
Mr. Scholz had said in October that he was open to resuming direct communication with Mr. Putin, but Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, dismissed the idea, saying that there was no reason for a call, according to Russian media.
The Kremlin last month repeatedly downplayed reports in the German media about a looming conversation between Mr. Putin and Mr. Scholz.
“We are hearing words coming from Berlin — Scholz’s words about his readiness to open a dialogue,” Mr. Peskov told reporters on Oct. 19. “These are important words, because just a short time ago Germany was among the countries of the collective West that categorically rejected any contacts with Putin.”
Since then, Mr. Scholz has seen his governing coalition splinter. He fired his finance minister this month, effectively kicking one of his coalition partners out of the government, a move that set the stage for early elections in February. Mr. Scholz’s party trails its largest mainstream rival, the Christian Democrats, badly in the polls. But those two parties have largely agreed on continued support for Ukraine, even as surging populist parties on the far left and the far right have called for Germany to end its support for Kyiv.
The call comes as Mr. Scholz and other world leaders are getting ready to meet in Brazil for the G20 Summit starting on Monday. Mr. Putin, who used to be part of G20 summits, had stated in October that he would not attend this year.
The Kremlin told Russian state media that Mr. Putin and Mr. Scholz had “a detailed and honest interchange of opinions about the situation in Ukraine.” During the call, state media reported, Mr. Putin blamed Mr. Scholz for “an unprecedented degradation of relations between Russia and Germany.”
Mr. Scholz and Mr. Putin vowed to stay in touch, according to the chancellor’s spokesman.
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