- Duda warned Trump in call of Germany’s Kremlin dealmaking
- Polish president takes aim at Scholz’s phone call with Putin
Poland’s head of state accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of trying to cut Donald Trump out of talks over the future of Ukraine in a bid to revive Germany’s own relations with Russia. Scholz drew criticism from the government in Kyiv and some of its allies over his phone call last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he justified by saying he aimed to push the Kremlin leader to negotiate a lasting peace with Ukraine. But Polish President Andrzej Duda, who has cultivated a close relationship with Trump since the president-elect’s first term in office, said the telephone diplomacy had another purpose.
“I believe it was an attempt to bring about a cease-fire in Ukraine before Donald Trump took office,” Duda said in an interview in Warsaw.
Duda also criticized Scholz’s decision to invite US President Joe Biden for talks on the future of Ukraine with the leaders of France and the UK last month in Berlin. The Polish leader said he was “shocked” that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wasn’t given a seat at the table. Asked about Duda’s comments during a news conference at the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Scholz reiterated his reasons for talking with Putin. “We also have to make sure that Europe speaks, and so I emphasize again that it was very important to hold talks,” Scholz told reporters. “Also to be able to report that, unfortunately from what we heard, nothing has changed with the Russian president from his original plans,” he added. Duda’s intervention is the latest evidence of how Kyiv’s allies are jockeying for position ahead of a major shakeup in geopolitics triggered by Trump’s return. Duda said that Scholz is concerned about being pushed into disadvantageous deals with Washington after Trump takes office and is trying to get ahead of that. The German leader is politically hobbled after his government collapsed this month, triggering an early election in February. “What the Germans are most afraid of is that Donald Trump will force them to buy gas from America,” Duda said. Duda and Trump have maintained close ties and discussed the war in Ukraine during a two-and-a-half hour meeting in New York in April. During a phone call on Nov. 11, they agreed to meet again before Trump’s inauguration. Duda said he warned the US president-elect in that phone call that Germany and other allies are trying to “tie his hands.” Duda dismissed as “laughable” suggestions that Trump would abandon Ukraine, pointing to military aid that his previous administration sent to Kyiv. The Polish leader said Trump didn’t outline his plan for the war, but he quizzed the Pole about his views and the stances of other leaders. “I’m convinced that when it comes to the war in Ukraine, he is collecting data and information,” Duda said. “At this moment, he is constantly, continuously collecting this information in a very vigilant manner.”
Duda wasn’t alone in criticizing Scholz’s hour-long call with Putin Friday, the first direct contact in almost two years. Ukraine blasted the effort, other European allies took a dim view of the exchange.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Monday in an interview with rbb24 Inforadio that “diplomacy only works if talking continues even in the most difficult moments. At the same time, it’s important that we speak together as Europeans.” NN: Biden’s (Obama) DNA are all over this senseless escalation to destroy the peace that Trump is close to achieving.
Kremlin: Nuclear response to Ukraine using Western weapons possible
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov issued a stern warning Tuesday to Ukraine and its allies should Kiev decide to use Western long-range missiles against Russia or Belarus. Peskov’s remark comes minutes after it was learned that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved updates to the country’s nuclear doctrine,
expanding the authorization of the use of nuclear weapons to include aggression by a non-nuclear state with the support of a nuclear state.
In a press conference, Peskov reiterated the warnings issued in the new doctrine while declaring the military is monitoring the situation “as closely as possible” regarding the report that US President Joe Biden has already approved the use of US long-range missiles in Russia.