Berlin: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday came under fire from NATO allies for his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week.
In a post on X, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: "No one will stop Putin with phone calls.” The massive Russian overnight attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure had shown that "phone diplomacy” could not replace genuine support for Ukraine from the West as a whole, Tusk said.
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen also called on European leaders to exercise restraint in their dealings with Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
Valtonen told the German public broadcaster ARD: "The most important thing is that we understand that it cannot come to this - that we end up with a competition for the Kremlin’s attention.” Having European leaders phoning Putin, whether in a coordinated or uncoordinated way, would not produce results, she said. (DPA)