Trump’s election will mean “the war will end quicker”, Zelensky said in an interview with the Suspilne website released on Friday.

Scholz’s renewed effort to communicate with Putin may align with Trump’s repeated pledge to end the conflict quickly, having said he could resolve the war by his January 20 inauguration.

In an interview with Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Scholz said that after a phone call with Trump, he came away with the impression he has a “more nuanced position” on Ukraine than most in Germany expect of him.

Scholz denounced Moscow’s air attacks on civilian infrastructure and called the deployment of North Korean troops a grave escalation in the more than two-and-a-half year war, according to officials in Berlin who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Scholz and Putin agreed to remain in contact, the officials said. The call was first reported by Bloomberg News on Friday.

But the diplomatic foray irked European Union allies who have long regarded direct talks with Putin as largely meaningless. Friday’s exchange wasn’t flagged to a majority of member states, according to an EU official.

Scholz had discussed a potential call with leaders of the US, UK and France, but the timing wasn’t clear, said an official close to French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron’s efforts to maintain an open line with the Kremlin in the first months of the war fell flat – and angered Kyiv.

One European government official derided Scholz’s move as useless. An official from another government said the chancellor was acting from a position of weakness and suggested he would be better off dealing with his domestic issues.

Scholz informed Zelensky of his plan during a conversation on Wednesday, but the Ukrainian leader responded that such a move would only play into Putin’s hands and urged him not to do it, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, long a vocal opponent of Putin, welcomed the German leader’s criticism of Russia’s war aims after Scholz briefed him on the call.

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“I was satisfied to hear that he not only condemned the Russian aggression, but he also reiterated the Polish position: ‘Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,’” he said in a post on X.

The Kremlin confirmed the exchange, saying in a statement that Putin noted Russia “has never refused and remains open” to talks, but any agreement must consider Russia’s security interests, including “new territorial realities”, it said in a statement.

The Russian statement called the conversation “detailed and frank,” with Putin reinforcing his position that the crisis resulted from NATO’s “aggressive policy”.

Scholz’s political leverage is undermined by domestic problems – and a February 23 snap election, for which he is trailing in the polls.

In an address to parliament on Wednesday, Scholz assured MPs that his outgoing administration would stand by its commitment to Ukraine – even as he reinforced his rejection of delivering long-range weapons such as Taurus cruise missiles, a decision that’s been criticised by other allies of Ukraine.

Bloomberg, Reuters

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