Putin Suggests Former German Chancellor Schroeder Coordinate EU Talks on Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could coordinate talks with the European Union to secure a peace deal in Ukraine. The proposal was met with scepticism by EU officials. European Council President Antonio Costa said recently he believed there was potential for the EU to negotiate with Russia and to discuss the future of Europe’s security architecture.

Asked on Saturday whom he would like to see restarting talks with Europe, Putin said he would personally prefer Schroeder. Schroeder led Germany from 1998 to 2005. A day later, the Russian leader said the four-year-old war may be coming to an end and that he was ready to hold direct talks with his Ukrainian counterpart in Moscow or a neutral country.

Speaking after Saturday’s celebrations for Victory Day, which marks Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, Putin added he would be willing to meet only once the terms of a peace agreement had already been settled. Russia had announced a unilateral two-day ceasefire on May 8-9 to mark Victory Day.

As part of a broader Washington-led push for peace, President Donald Trump on Friday announced a three-day pause in the conflict, but both sides have since accused the other of breaking it.

His political goals included European integration, reducing unemployment, liberalising German citizenship laws, curbing nuclear power and rebuilding the economy. Disagreements over the Iraq war caused a serious rift in German-U.S. relations in 2003, when Germany sided with France and Russia in opposing military intervention.

After leaving office in 2005, Schroeder almost immediately took a job as chairman of a German-Russian consortium building a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. He held key roles in Russian energy projects, including work on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and a seat on the board of Russian oil firm Rosneft, which he gave up in 2022.

Schroeder has remained close to Putin and faced criticism in Germany for not publicly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. His failure to publicly condemn the invasion has cost him several privileges normally granted to former chancellors, including receiving a state-funded office.

Under his leadership, Germany deepened its economic ties with Russia, grew trade and increased its dependency on Russian oil and natural gas. Schroeder criticised moves to impose sanctions and eject Russia from the Group of Eight. He backed a Kremlin argument comparing the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region with NATO’s intervention in Serbia’s Kosovo province in 1999.

The U.S.-backed talks have faltered over the latest Russian offensive to seize the remaining parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow has demanded Kyiv cede before it considers ending its war. The two sides continue to carry out strikes against each other.

On Sunday, Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks had killed at least three people and that close to 150 combat engagements had occurred on the front lines in the previous 24 hours, despite the three-day pause in fighting. Russia’s Ministry of Defence accused Ukraine of violating the pause, saying it had downed 57 Ukrainian drones over the past day and responded in kind on the battlefield.

Control of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has also been a point of contention. While Putin suggested the war was coming to an end on Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said peace in Ukraine was a very long way away. On Sunday, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov saying that U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would visit Moscow soon enough to continue talks with Russia.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas reacted with scepticism to Putin’s proposal regarding Schroeder. Germany dismissed the suggestion on Sunday, with a German official telling Reuters the offer was not credible because Russia had not changed any of its conditions.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Putin had made a series of bogus offers aimed at dividing the Western alliance.