Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has compared Scholz's phone call with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Friday to opening "Pandora's box".
The German opposition party CDU's foreign policy spokesperson Jürgen Hardt raged against Social Democrat Scholz on Saturday and accused him of having helped Putin to a "propaganda victory" for German domestic political reasons.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk joins the chorus of critics on Sunday.
"No one will stop Putin with phone calls. The attack last night, one of the largest in this war, has shown that phone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the entire West for Ukraine", Tusk writes on X and refers to Russia's attack on Kyiv.
But Olaf Scholz says that "no decision will be made behind Ukraine's back", and that "Ukraine can count on us".
It was important to tell him (Putin) that he cannot expect Germany's, Europe's, and many other countries' support for Ukraine to weaken, says Scholz at Berlin Airport on Sunday.
The Federal Chancellor says further that his conversation with Putin made it possible for him to "note that the Russian President has not changed much about this war, which is not good news".
