On Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the call, saying Mr Scholz had opened “Pandora’s box”.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement: “Talk only give[s] Putin hope of easing his international isolation.
“What is needed are concrete, strong actions that will force him to peace, not persuasion and attempts at appeasement, which he sees as a sign of weakness and uses to his advantage.”
In the call, Putin told Mr Scholz that Russia was willing to consider fresh energy deals with Germany. Berlin was heavily reliant on Russian gas before the war but direct shipments ceased when pipelines under the Baltic Sea were blown up in 2022.
Mr Scholz plans to brief Mr Zelensky, Germany’s allies, partners and the heads of the European Union and Nato on the outcome of Friday’s call. Putin and Mr Scholz agreed to stay in contact, government sources said.
The Kremlin said that deep divisions remained with Germany but the fact of dialogue with Scholz was “positive”.
In a further sign of EU leaders’ openness to talks, Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, plans to make his first visit to an EU country since the war began next month.
He is set to attend the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s December meeting in Malta. The group monitored the front lines after Russia seized parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
It was reported that EU attendees may not stage a walk-out when he speaks, as many did when he spoke at the UN in New York.
On Friday, Mr Zelensky said the war would “end faster” with Mr Trump in charge of the White House.
“The war will end, but there is no exact date,” he told local radio. “Certainly, with the policies of this team that will now lead the White House, the war will end sooner.”