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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
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Zelensky accuses German chancellor of opening ‘Pandora’s box’
with Putin
By CNN staff
Updated:
7:51 PM EST, Fri November 15, 2024
Source: CNN
Ukrainian President has criticized a call between Germany’s
chancellor and Russian President Vladimir Putin as opening a
“Pandora’s box” that only works to undermine efforts to isolate
Russia’s leader.
“This is exactly what Putin has been wanting for a long time: it is
extremely important for him to weaken his isolation, Russia’s
isolation, and to have normal negotiations that will not end in
anything,” Zelensky said about Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call.
The conversation on Friday was the first time Scholz had spoken with
Putin in two years. It comes as the German leader gears up for a snap
election and Europe waits to hear US President-elect Donald Trump’s
plan for ending the .
On the call, Scholz urged Putin to pull his forces out of Ukraine and
begin talks with Kyiv that would open the way for a “just and lasting
peace,” the German government said, Reuters reported.
The Kremlin said the conversation had come at Berlin’s request, and
that Putin had told Scholz any agreement to end the war in Ukraine must
take Russian security interests into account and reflect “new
territorial realities.”
Zelensky and other European officials had cautioned Scholz against the
move, according to sources familiar with the matter, who believed it
was more for domestic consumption, Reuters reported.
Facing a snap election on Feb. 23, Scholz’s Social Democrats are
coming under pressure from Russia-friendly populist parties on both
sides of the political spectrum that argue the government has not
deployed enough diplomacy to end the war, according to Reuters.
“The chancellor urged Russia to show willingness to enter talks with
Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace,” a German
government spokesperson said in a statement, Reuters added.
“He stressed Germany’s unbroken determination to back Ukraine in
its defense against Russian aggression for as long as necessary,” the
spokesperson added, said Reuters.
Ukraine said however that phone conversations with Putin brought no
added value on the path to achieving a “just peace” in Ukraine.
“This [the call] made it possible for Russia to change nothing in its
policy, to do nothing in essence, and this is exactly what led to this
war,” Zelensky said in his evening address.
The call comes in the week after Trump was elected as the next US
president. He has suggested he could put a swift end to the war,
without explaining how, and repeatedly criticized the scale of Western
financial and military aid for Kyiv.
“It sends a bad signal especially after Trump’s election,” said
one Western diplomat to Reuters, noting their country had told Berlin
it was not a good idea. “My hope is that Scholz can now say to his
electorate ‘look, I have done it, and it’s a waste of time as Putin
isn’t open to anything’. But of course, (it is a) question about
how Russia spins it.”
Scholz to brief allies
Putin had told Scholz Russia was willing to look at energy deals if
Germany was interested. Germany was heavily reliant on Russian gas
before the war but direct shipments ceased when pipelines under the
Baltic Sea were blown up in 2022.
Scholz plans to brief Zelensky, Germany’s allies, partners and the
heads of the European Union and NATO on the outcome of Friday’s call,
German officials said, according to Reuters. Putin and Scholz agreed to
stay in contact, they added.
Ukraine is facing increasingly difficult conditions on the frontlines
in its east amid shortages of arms and personnel, while Russian forces
make steady advances.
A separate German government official told Reuters that Scholz had told
Putin the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia for combat
missions against Ukraine was seen as a serious escalation and expansion
of the conflict.
Zelensky says North Korea has 11,000 troops in Russia and that some
have suffered casualties in combat with Ukrainian forces which are
currently occupying territory in Russia’s southern Kursk region.
Germany has given Ukraine a total of 15 billion euros in financial,
humanitarian and military support since the start of the full-scale
war, making it Kyiv’s second-largest backer after the United States,
according to Reuters.
The future of US aid to Ukraine is unclear following Trump’s election
victory.
Scholz and Putin last spoke in December 2022, 10 months after Russia
launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, plunging relations with
the West into their deepest freeze since the Cold War, Reuters added.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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