Scholz on the phone with Putin: Chancellor sees no insight
Created: 2022-09-14Updated: 2022-09-14, 7:15 p.m
First phone call in three and a half months: Vladimir Putin (l) and Olaf Scholz.
© ---Kay Nietfeld/dpa/AP/sputnik/dpa
For the first time in three and a half months, the Federal Chancellor is on the phone with the Russian President.
Scholz' conclusion is clear.
UN Secretary-General Guterres also made a statement.
Berlin - Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) sees no change in his attitude towards the war against Ukraine from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Unfortunately, I can't tell you that the realization has grown there that it was a mistake to start this war," Scholz said on Wednesday in Berlin, referring to his 90-minute phone call with Putin.
"There was also no indication that new attitudes were emerging there."
Scholz emphasized that it was still right to talk to each other and to explain your own view of things to Putin.
"Because I am firmly convinced that Russia must withdraw, must withdraw its troops, so that peace has a chance in the region.
And every day I realize that that is the only perspective.”
Scholz called Putin for the first time in three and a half months on Tuesday.
He insisted that a diplomatic solution and a complete withdrawal of Russian troops had to be reached as soon as possible.
UN: Chance of Ukraine talks 'minimal'
Following talks with Putin, UN Secretary-General António Guterres also has no hopes for peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv in the near future.
"It would be naïve to think that we are close to the possibility of a peace deal," Guterres said in New York.
Although the United Nations is prepared to work on a diplomatic solution in every respect, the chances of this are currently "minimal".
Guterres said he spoke to the Russian president on the phone on Wednesday.
The United Nations, together with Turkey, had already successfully negotiated between Russia and Ukraine in the conflict - especially on the deal to export millions of tons of grain from Ukraine across the Black Sea.
The general debate at the UN General Assembly will begin next week at the United Nations in New York.
dpa
