Kremlin says Putin is open ‘to contacts’ with Germany’s Scholz

Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to contacts with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz though he has no phone call scheduled with him, a Kremlin spokesperson told the state RIA Novosti news agency on Sunday. 

Germany, previously the West’s main holdout on providing modern battle tanks to Ukraine to help it fight off Russia’s invasion, said last week it would send 14 of its Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv and also approve Leopard shipments by allied European countries.

The announcement, followed shortly afterwards by a US pledge of M1 Abrams tanks to Kyiv, infuriated the Kremlin.

“For now, there are no agreed talks [with Scholz] in the schedule. Putin has been and remains open to contacts,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

Scholz was quoted by the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel in an interview published on Sunday as saying: “I will also speak to Putin again — because it is necessary to speak.”

He added: “The onus is on Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine to end this horrendous, senseless war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives already.”

Spokespeople for Scholz could not be immediately reached for comment. He is on a visit to South America.

Putin and Scholz last spoke by phone in early December. The Russian leader said at the time the German and Western line on Ukraine was “destructive” and called on Berlin to rethink its approach.

Germany is the second largest donor of military hardware to Ukraine after the US, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, ahead of other European powers such as France and Britain.

Moscow calls its actions a “special military operation” to fend off a hostile, encroaching West. Ukraine and its allies say the invasion was an unprovoked act of aggression.

Kyiv says peace talks are possible only if Russia stops attacking and withdraws all forces from Ukrainian soil.

Ukraine’s military said on Sunday its forces repelled an attack in the area of Blahodatne in the eastern part of the Donetsk region, while Russia’s Wagner private military group said it took control of the village.

“Units of Ukraine’s Defence Forces repelled the attacks of the occupiers in the areas of ... Blahodatne ... in the Donetsk region,” the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in its daily morning report, referring to fighting on Saturday.

It added that its forces repelled Russian attacks in the areas of 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region.

The Wagner Group, designated by the US as a transnational criminal organisation, said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

With fighting heating up in the Donetsk region, the exact line of contact has been unclear, especially around the town of Bakhmut where some of the heaviest fighting of the war has been taking place in recent weeks. The Wagner Group has made premature success claims before.

Ukraine has said the Russian offensive on Bakhmut has not culminated, but the situation along the front-line there has been difficult. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that it was acute.

Four civilians were killed, one in Bakhmut, and 17 wounded in Russian attacks on the region on Saturday, Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters