German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday his conversation with Vladimir Putin on Friday had given no indication of a shift in the Russian President's thinking on the war in Ukraine, but defended his much-criticized decision to phone the Kremlin. Scholz's hour-long call with Putin, their first direct communication in almost two years, comes three months before snap elections in which the wildly unpopular chancellor faces a stiff challenge from populists of left and right who are demanding a resumption of diplomacy. Critics, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the call was a breach of Western solidarity for the sake of domestic political advantage.The call comes amid signs of growing contact between Western-aligned leaders and the Kremlin, even as Russia makes small but steady battlefield gains in Ukraine's east.
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