Putin's phone call with Germany sparks NATO anger
NATO ally Poland has said "telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support" for Ukraine as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in roughly two years.
"No one will stop Putin with phone calls," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
"The attack last night [Saturday], one of the biggest in this war, has proved that telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West for Ukraine," he added. "The next weeks will be decisive, not only for the war itself, but also for our future."
Moscow launched "a massive, combined attack" of around 120 missiles and 90 drones on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement early on Sunday.
Moscow used several types of missiles, including its hypersonic Zircon and Kinzhal missiles, and the Iranian-designed Shahed strike drones, the Ukrainian leader said. Kyiv intercepted "over 140" of the incoming targets, Zelensky said.
The large-scale aerial campaign came shortly after Scholz spoke with the Russian leader for the first time in two years, according to German media.
Scholz said in a statement that he called on Putin to end the war in Ukraine and pull all Russian troops from the country. "Russia must show willingness to negotiate with Ukraine—with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace," Scholz said.
Scholz is facing a snap election in the next few months after Germany's governing coalition collapsed.
Newsweek has contacted the German federal government via email for comment.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, foreign minister for NATO member Lithuania, which borders Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and Putin-allied Belarus, said on Saturday that "history keeps telling us that true peace can only be achieved through strength." The phone call, he added, should "be the last breath of the failed strategy of trading land for 'peace' with a genocidal dictator."
Questions over a possible ceasefire and deal between Putin and President-elect Donald Trump are swirling ahead of the Republican's inauguration in January. Reports have suggested one possible route the incoming president could take is agreeing to a demilitarized zone along the front lines in eastern Ukraine, solidifying Russia's control of around a fifth of the country.
Since his reelection, countries backing Ukraine in Europe have worried that Trump could engineer a deal to end fighting in Ukraine that effectively cuts out NATO's eastern bloc, and Kyiv itself.
"In my view it would not be a good idea if there were talks between the American and Russian presidents and the leader of an important European country was not also doing so," Scholz said on Sunday, defending the call.
The Kremlin said in a readout of the call that any future agreements would have to consider "new territorial realities."
The call was at Berlin's request, and was an "in-depth and frank exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine," the Kremlin said. Aides for the two leaders agreed to stay in contact, the Russian government reported.
Zelensky said on Friday that the German chancellor had told him he would call the Russian leader, and likened the call to opening "Pandora's box."
"Now there may be other conversations, other calls. Just a lot of words," Zelensky said in his evening address. "This is exactly what Putin has wanted for a long time: it is crucial for him to weaken his isolation."
In the more than two and a half years since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has become a pariah to many Western countries, cultivating closer ties with China, North Korea and Iran, as well as courting other nations in what is referred to as the Global South.
Scholz said on Sunday it was important to stress to the Russian leader "that he cannot count on support from Germany, Europe and many others in the world waning."
"The conversation was very detailed, but contributed to a recognition that little has changed in the Russian president's views of the war—and that's not good news," Scholz told reporters, according to Reuters.
