Polish President Andrzej Duda accused German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Nov. 18 of undermining U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s potential role in Ukraine peace negotiations to rebuild Germany’s ties with Russia.
Duda suggested that Scholz’s recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin was an attempt to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine before Trump takes office.
"I believe it was an attempt to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine before Donald Trump took office," Duda said in an interview in Warsaw, as quoted by Bloomberg.
Scholz defended the call as an effort to encourage peace talks with Ukraine, but it drew criticism from Kyiv and its allies.
The Polish president has traditionally fostered warm ties with Trump, who pledged to end the war "within 24" hours and bring both sides to the negotiating table. Duda sought to dispel concerns about Trump abandoning Ukraine, saying the U.S. president-elect "does not like to lose."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Nov. 15 against negotiations that might ease Russia's isolation without achieving meaningful results.
"It is extremely important for Putin to loosen his isolation, Russia's isolation, and to conduct ordinary negotiations that will not result in anything — as he has been doing for decades," Zelensky said.
Earlier, Trump announced that he may "soon" appoint a Ukrainian peace envoy to lead negotiations on ending Russia's war, Fox News reported on Nov. 13.
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine and Russia held talks in Belarus and Turkey in early 2022, but the negotiations were eventually abandoned after Ukraine retook the north of the country and mass war crimes were discovered in the liberated areas.
Chris York
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