Scholz rejects ‘dictated peace’ for Ukraine, after Trump-Putin call

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday a deal to end the Ukraine war should not be imposed on Kyiv, after US President Donald Trump agreed to open negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a call.

“The next task is to ensure that there is no dictated peace,” Scholz told news outlet Politico in an interview.

Trump, after speaking to Putin on Wednesday, said that talks to bring an end to the conflict in Ukraine, which began with Russia’s invasion almost three years ago, would start “immediately”.

Earlier on Wednesday, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said Ukraine’s aim of returning to its pre-2014 borders was “illusionary” and dubbed Kyiv’s wish to join the US-led NATO alliance “not realistic”.

At a meeting of Ukraine’s military backers in Brussels, Hegseth also made clear that the United States would not deploy troops on the ground.

“Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops,” he said.

Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius responded Thursday that it was “regrettable” that Trump’s administration had made “concessions” to Russia before peace talks on Ukraine had even started.

“In my view it would have been better to speak about a possible NATO membership for Ukraine or possible losses of territory at the negotiating table,” Pistorius said ahead of a NATO meeting in Brussels.

Scholz said in the interview that transatlantic unity must “always be guaranteed”.

“It is quite clear to me that there can be no solution that is not also a solution in which the USA is involved,” Scholz said.

The chancellor at the same time ruled out for the moment sending German troops to Ukraine.

“Everyone knows that this is out of the question now,” he said.

At this stage it was “not clear under what conditions Ukraine would be prepared to agree to a peace agreement”, Scholz said.

Ukraine needed the opportunity to develop “even after the peace agreement”, Scholz said.

This meant having “a strong army” that would be larger than before the war and equipped with western weapons.