The wildly unpopular chancellor's much-criticized decision to phone the Kremlin comes three months before he faces stiff challenges from the populist left and right.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday for the first time in nearly two years as the German leader gears up for a snap election and Europe waits to hear Donald Trump's plan for ending the war in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday defended a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that came in for sharp criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "It was important to say as well that he (Putin) should not count on the support for Ukraine of Germany,

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.

Germany's government says that Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the first such conversation in two years.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time in nearly two years, discussing the war in Ukraine for an hour.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for an hour on Friday afternoon, a German government source said on Friday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday came under fire from NATO allies for his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week. In a post on X, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said: "No one will stop Putin with phone calls.