Olaf Scholz’s call with Vladimir Putin has been criticised after Russia launched one of the largest missile attacks of the war against Ukraine overnight. Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said the barrage proved “no-one will stop Putin with phone calls” and that “telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what appeared to be the first conversation with the sitting leader of a major Western power in nearly two years

By Thomas Escritt BERLIN (Reuters) -German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his conversation with Vladimir Putin on Friday had given no indication of a shift in the Russian President's thinking on the war in Ukraine,