One of Olaf Scholz’s top allies in the German parliament has urged him to consider “freezing” the Ukraine war, in the latest sign of a party split over standing up to Russia.

Speaking during a debate on sending weapons to Ukraine, Rolf Mützenich, who is the head of Mr Scholz’s Social Democrat parliamentary party, asked: “Instead of asking how to wage war, isn’t it time to ask how we can freeze a war and end it later?”

The comments were immediately condemned by the SPD’s coalition partners, with Green party head Ricarda Lang describing the comments as “the old Russia policy” which would “clearly lead to incredible suffering for the many people in the occupied territories”.

Andriy Melnyk, a former Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin, described Mr Mützenich as “the most nauseating German politician”.

Mr Scholz’s SPD has long been criticised for being soft on Russia.

Former chancellor Gerhard Schröder is a personal friend of Vladimir Putin and now works for Gazprom, while Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, once defended the Nordstream gas pipeline with Russia, citing Germany’s historical responsibility for the Second World War.

The comments were the latest sign of a growing rift within Mr Scholz’s party over how far Germany should go in challenging Russia’s aggression.

Mr Mützenich is a stalwart of the SPD’s Left wing, which Mr Scholz is known to rely on to maintain power within the party.

Roderick Kiesewetter, a former Bundeswehr officer and opposition CDU politician, accused Mr Mützenich of “testing the waters” to see how much sympathy the statement got within the party.

Mr Mützenich’s statement was defended by fellow SPD Left-winger Ralf Stegner, who said a “temporary and regionally limited ceasefire” was needed.

European politicians and security experts have signed an open letter warning that Mr Scholz’s “current policy seriously risks defeat in Ukraine, which would embolden Moscow and raise the likelihood of a wider war with Russia in which the missiles could be falling on Cologne rather than Kyiv”.

Mr Scholz has repeatedly refused to deliver Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, despite pressure from his coalition partners, including Annalena Baerbock, foreign minister from the Greens, as well as his international allies.

The letter was signed by a Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, a former president of Estonia, a former Ukrainian foreign minister and the president of the German Council of Foreign Relations.