Merz publicly rebuked Putin

As the German Chancellor noted, the Russian dictator is using a "delay strategy" to seek a diplomatic end to Russia's war against Ukraine:

Putin believes it is right to set conditions for a meeting between him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that are completely unacceptable from the point of view of Ukraine and its Western partners.

Friedrich Merz

Chancellor of Germany

The German leader drew attention to the fact that Donald Trump and Putin agreed last week to hold a meeting between the Russian dictator and Volodymyr Zelensky.

As Merz noted, they jointly expressed the hope that this meeting would take place within two weeks.

The US president recently said that he believes Vladimir Putin's hostility towards Zelensky is delaying a meeting between the two leaders.