According to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin had long planned an attack on Ukraine, and made the decision to invade at least a year in advance. He said this in an interview with CBS.

"Nobody really knows," Scholz said when asked when Putin would run out of resources to continue the war, but the long planning, according to the chancellor, indicates that he is ready for a long war.

"He is the leader of a very large country with many people, with many means, he is really waging this brutal war and has been preparing for it for a very long time," Scholz said.

"I think the decision to fight this war was made a year before it started or maybe earlier because he's been preparing for it. And that's why he will be able to continue the war for a very long time," he noted.

Scholz said that although Putin "won't admit it," Russia is being affected by Western sanctions.

"This is happening to a not-so-developed country that really needs all the technology from the rest of the world to have an adequate standard of living," he said.

But when asked about the roughly $2 billion a month Germany spends on Russian gas, coal and other energy supplies, Scholz countered that it gives Putin an opportunity to lessen the effect of sanctions.

"He can't buy anything with the money he gets from us because there are all these sanctions on importing modern technology and things that he needs. So this is something that [Putin] is very angry about," he said.

In addition, according to Scholz, Germany is working hard to reduce the amount it pays Russia for energy resources.