Polish President Andrzej Duda called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin “a mistake” in his post on X on Nov. 18.
Scholz spoke with Putin on Nov. 15 for the first time in nearly two years. The German chancellor condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine, urged Putin to withdraw his troops, and discussed potential talks with Kyiv.
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Scholz’s call with Putin opens a “Pandora’s box,” potentially leading to “other conversations and other calls.”
“I doubt that the German Chancellor’s conversation with Putin was agreed with the allies,” Duda said.
“Russia is brutally attacking Ukraine, and one of the leaders of European countries, a strong economy, is holding talks with the aggressor. I think this is a mistake,” Duda added.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine and Russia held talks in Minsk and Istanbul in March 2022, but the negotiations were eventually abandoned after Ukrainian retook the north of the country and mass war crimes were discovered in the liberated areas.
In remarks during Ukraine’s Peace Summit in June this year, Zelensky said the Istanbul talks failed because of the Russian side’s “ultimatums.”
Martin Fornusek