Putin wants an end to war in Ukraine, says old friend

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, said that his longtime friend Vladimir Putin is exploring ways to halt hostilities in Ukraine, which he set off by invading the country in February.

Criticized for maintaining close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian energy sector, Schröder told left-liberal German magazine Stern that the recent agreement on grain shipments could be expanded into a ceasefire.

“The good news is that the Kremlin wants a negotiated solution,” he told Stern magazine and the broadcasters RTL in an interview, reports The Times of London.

The German politician added that he had met Putin in Moscow just last week.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba responded on Twitter that there is “nothing more cynical than Putin’s henchmen saying Russia is ready for peace talks.”

“Russia remains focused on war,” he tweeted.

Ukraine resumed the export of grains this week after it signed a deal with Russia brokered by Turkey and the United Nations. On Monday, a grain ship left the port of Odesa for the first time since the beginning of the war five months ago.

The Social Democratic Party played a large part in bringing Germany closer to Russia. Schröder came under fire for taking a position as chairman of the shareholders committee of Nord Stream AG, who built a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that he championed as chancellor.

His successor, Angela Merkel, spearheaded green policies that increased Germany’s dependence on Russian oil. When the war in Ukraine began, Germany was purchasing 50% of its coal, 55% of its gas and 35% of its oil from Russia.

Schröder recently stepped down from the board of Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft and declined a nomination for a board position at Gazprom after withering criticism, reports The Times.

But he kept his position on the Nord Stream AG board. During the interview, he urged the German government to reconsider its position on Nord Stream 2, a new Russia-Germany pipeline project that it suspended in February after Putin recognized the independence of two breakaway regions in Donbas.

The former official was stripped of his right to a German government-funded office space in May but allowed to keep his monthly allowance of 8,300 Euros ($8,450).