Russia’s Putin tells Germany’s Scholz that Western line on Ukraine is ‘destructive’

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a phone call on Friday that the German and Western line on Ukraine was “destructive” and urged Berlin to rethink its approach, the Kremlin said.

It said according to Reuters that Putin defended Russia’s missile strikes on targets in Ukraine and said Russia should be allowed to participate in investigations into what it called the “terrorist” attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea.