German Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron in calling for Europe to restart relations with Russia.

Merz has been an ardent supporter of Ukraine, but now he says he considers Russia to be “a European country” and expressed hope for the restoration of relations between Berlin and Moscow, Die Welt reported on January 15.

"Russia is a European country," Merz said, speaking at a New Year's reception at the Halle-Dessau Chamber of Commerce. He then expressed hope for a rebalancing of relations with Moscow. He added that if the balance with Russia can be restored in the long term and peace prevails, the EU and Germany will have passed another test.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni added her voice to calls by European leaders to start direct talks with Russia to end the war in Ukraine on January 9. However, she warned that the initiative would have to be coordinated amongst EU leaders or else confusion could be to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advantage.

Her call follows on from comments by French President Emmanuel Macron last week that Europe should reestablish diplomatic relations and engage directly with the Kremlin to bring the four-year-old war to an end.

“I think Macron is right, the time has come for Europe to speak to Russia,” Meloni told reporters during her year-end press conference. She warned that any outreach would only bring a “limited” contribution and could ultimately benefit  Putin if done “piecemeal in a disorderly fashion.” She added: “The last thing I want to do with Putin is do him a favour.”

Macron said that Europeans should seek direct dialogue with Moscow if no lasting peace can be reached through the current peace talks which made real progress in the last two months culminating in the Mar-a-Lago meeting on December 28.

On January 15, at the ceremony presenting credentials, Russian President Vladimir Putin told ambassadors that Moscow is ready to restore the necessary level of relations with European countries. He stated that normal ties with neighbours can be restored while taking into account security interests, and that Russia is open to cooperation with all countries without exception.

With the war in Ukraine increasingly going Russia’s way and Europe struggling with its own economic problems, the pressure to end the war in Brussels is growing.

US President Donald Trump has taken a more active role in pushing for a negotiated end to the conflict, but the talks are currently stalled again as the parties seek a compromise between the 27-point peace plan (27PPP) thrashed out a Moscow meeting between US envoys and Putin on December 3 and the 20-point peace plan (20PPP) Ukrainian counteroffer submitted to the Kremlin on Christmas Eve.

However, in one of his regular flip flops on the peace deal, Trump said in an interview on January 14 that Zelenskiy was the main obstacle to closing a peace deal, in sharp contrast to rhetoric from European allies who have consistently said that Moscow has little interest in ending the war, Reuters reports.

In an exclusive interview in the Oval Office, Trump said that Putin was ready to end the nearly four-year-old war, but Zelenskiy was more hesitant.

"I think [Putin] is ready to make a deal. I think Ukraine is less ready to make a deal," Trump said, as cited by Interfax.  Asked why US-led talks have so far failed to end the conflict, Trump replied: "Zelenskiy," the publication writes.

Asked if he would meet with the Ukrainian president at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland next week, Trump said he would, but hinted that there were no plans yet. "I would meet if he was there. I’ll be there," Trump said.