GERMANY PERSPECTIVE

Berlin is following the Trump-Putin call with particular attention: in the hours preceding it, Trump was threatening to reduce American troops in Germany in response to criticism from Merz over the Iran war. For Germany, the Trump-Putin call falls within a toxic sequence where Washington treats its allies and Russian adversary with the same cold unpredictability.

Tagesschau titles soberly: 'After his call with Trump, Putin is open to a limited ceasefire' — a phrasing that underscores the conditional nature of Russian commitment. German coverage insists on the distinction between Putin's 'openness' and firm commitment: Moscow has signed nothing, committed to no verifiable conditions. This ambiguity, for Berlin, is precisely what the Kremlin seeks to maintain.

Germany has a particular stake in the war's duration: Merz has made firmness toward Putin a central marker of his foreign policy and domestic politics. A precipitous ceasefire that would allow Moscow to retain Ukrainian territories would be a major symbolic defeat for the chancellor — and for the Atlantic coalition that has politically invested in supporting Kyiv.