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 but defended his much-criticised decision to phone the Kremlin.

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has slammed their phone conversation, saying it had opened "Pandora's Box".

EADaily, November 17th, 2024. The telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin was important and detailed, but did not contain a hint of a change in Moscow's position on the Ukrainian crisis.