“We need to act unified, we need to coordinate, this call was not coordinated between allies, even [though] we got a very deep brief later on,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
Scholz said that during his phone call with Putin, he urged the Russian president “to end Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and to withdraw its troops.”
According to a German government spokesperson, Scholz had informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the call beforehand. “The Federal Chancellor urged Russia to be prepared to negotiate with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Asked whether he would speak to Putin, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said: “I don’t think so.”
He added: “It doesn’t look like he [Putin] is willing to negotiate, to the contrary.”
“What I see in general is that Putin only listens to facts on the ground,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp about the call.
