Scholz demands diplomatic solution in call with Putin

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine entirely, in their first conversation since February’s Russian invasion.

The two leaders spoke by telephone for 90 minutes on Tuesday evening, their first discussion in months, as Mr Scholz comes under growing pressure at home to step up heavy arms deliveries to Ukraine.

According to a German government spokesman, Mr Scholz “urged the Russian President to find a diplomatic solution as soon as possible, based on a ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Russian troops and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine”.

“The chancellor stressed that any further Russian annexation moves would not go unanswered and would under no circumstances be recognised,” added the statement.

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As reports of torture emerge from areas of Ukraine abandoned by Russian forces, Mr Scholz appealed to the Russian leader to treat prisoners of war according to the Geneva Conventions on humanitarian standards. The German leader also demanded an end to an escalation in violence around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and pressed Putin not to “discredit” the grain shipment deal secured by Turkey and the UN for grain exports via the Black Sea.

In its own statement, the Kremlin blamed Ukraine for continued violence and said that, “unlike Kiev, Russia grants the International Committee of the Red Cross access to” prisoners of war.

On energy supplies, President Putin insisted that “Russia has always been and remains a reliable supplier of energy” and that interruptions is supply, such as the current shutdown in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline “are the result of anti-Russia sanctions that interfere with the pipeline’s technical maintenance”.

German politicians — and German engineers responsible for the pipeline maintenance — dismiss such claims, insisting the reason for the pipeline shutdown is political.

On Tuesday Mr Scholz said that, from 55 per cent dependence on Russian gas in February, Germany now takes 10 per cent of its energy from Russia. With its first liquified gas terminals coming onstream in January, Germany plans to be free entirely of Russian gas by the end of 2023.

Meanwhile Mr Scholz is facing growing calls within his own coalition to respond to Ukraine’s recent swift battlefield advances with more weapons, particularly tanks.

Berlin has refused to export battle tanks to Ukraine, though one of its largest arms companies says it has vehicles ready for delivery.

While Berlin fears further deliveries could trigger a renewed Russian assault, or attacks on other neighbours, Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said there was “not a single rational argument on why these weapons can not be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses”.

Along with the Greens, Germany’s liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), a junior coalition partner in Berlin, says there is “widespread amazement” across Germany’s political spectrum at Berlin’s refusal to deliver heavy arms.

“To be honest it is a puzzle for us why the chancellor is so reticent,” said Ms Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, FDP defence spokeswoman. “He knows the pressure is great in the coalition and he will have to face up to the discussion eventually.”