BERLIN

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday expressed support for inviting Russia to an international peace conference to end the war in Ukraine.

Scholz told public broadcaster ZDF that during his recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, they had discussed the latest developments, as well as prospects for a new peace conference to end the war.

“I think this is the moment when we have to discuss how we can get out of this war situation, and achieve peace more quickly than what it seems at the moment,” Scholz said.

“There will definitely be another peace conference, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and I agree that it must also be the one that would include Russia,” he added.

Zelenskyy met with Scholz last week in Frankfurt, after he participated in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base in southwestern Germany.

After the meeting, Zelenskyy thanked Scholz for Germany's political and military support for Ukraine, and said they discussed preparations for a second peace conference, which is planned to be held in November.

The first peace conference was held in June in Switzerland, but Russia was not invited to the meeting. More than 90 countries attended the talks, but the joint communique was supported by 80 of them. A day before the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin moved forward his own peace initiative, calling on Ukraine to recognize Russia's territorial claims.