Ukraine has accused Germany of appeasement after Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, made overtures to President Putin about a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.

Scholz took his first telephone call with the Russian president since December 2022, ten months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The decision has angered Kyiv, with a source in President Zelensky’s office telling the Reuters news agency that the Ukrainian leader had urged his German counterpart not to talk to Putin because it would “let [him] change the scenery and keep the war going”.

In his nightly address on Friday, Zelensky condemned the call as “opening Pandora’s box”, adding: “Now there may be other conversations, other calls. Just a lot of words. And this is exactly what Putin has long wanted: it is extremely important for him to weaken his isolation.”