Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj quickly accused Scholz of playing into Putin's hands, and compared the conversation to opening "Pandora's box".
In Germany, the Christian Democratic opposition party CDU expressed similar criticism of the Social Democratic SPD's federal chancellor.
Putin will "perceive the fact that Scholz called him as a sign of weakness rather than strength", says CDU's foreign policy spokesperson Jürgen Hardt to Deutschlandfunk radio.
Hardt further accuses Scholz of having helped Putin to a "propaganda victory" for German domestic political reasons and notes that he apparently "did not come up with any concrete new proposal or even issued an ultimatum".
SPD's party secretary Matthias Miersch defends the conversation and believes it is important to seek diplomatic progress in the Ukraine war.
