President of Russia Vladimir Putin he is open for contacts with the chancellor of Germany Olaf Soltz although he has not scheduled any telephone contact with him, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti, citing a Kremlin spokesman.

Germany announced last week that it would send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv and would approve the deployment of Leopard tanks from allied European countries.

The announcement, soon followed by a US commitment to send M1 Abrams tanks to Kyiv, angered the Kremlin.

“At the moment, there is no agreement on negotiations (with Solts) in the program. Putin was and remains open to contacts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, RIA Novosti reports.

Soltz: “I will talk to Putin again”

In an interview with Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper published today, Scholz said: “I will speak to Putin again because it is necessary” and added: “Putin is responsible for withdrawing his troops from Ukraine to end this terrible, senseless war that is already cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

Soltz representatives were not immediately available for comment. He is currently touring Latin America.

The last time Putin and Soltz spoke on the phone was in early December.

Then the Russian leader said that the line of Germany and the West in relation to Ukraine is “catastrophic”, and called on Berlin to reconsider its approach.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany is the second largest donor of military equipment to Ukraine after the US and more than other European powers such as France and the UK.

^{Source: APE-MEB, Reuters}