Your trusted source

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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, CNN reported.

“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 war in Ukraine.

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.