German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
and French President Emmanuel Macron urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to
call an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine during a 75-minute call on Saturday.

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“Germany and
France demanded an immediate ceasefire from Russia” and “insisted that any
solution to this crisis must come through negotiations between Ukraine and
Russia,” according to German government sources.

The Elysee
confirmed the call in a statement, adding that EU leaders would be discussing
the conflict in Ukraine at their summit in Versailles this evening.

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“The three
leaders agreed to remain in close contact over the coming days,” it says.

The foreign
ministers of Russia and Ukraine held their first face-to-face talks in Turkey
earlier today after two weeks of war amid international outrage over Moscow’s
bombing of a children’s hospital in Kyiv.

But Ukraine
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said they had made “no progress” on a ceasefire,
14 days after Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbour.

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The three men
previously spoke on Thursday when Macron said that the conditions put forth by
Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ceasefire in Ukraine were “not
acceptable to anyone,” without specifying what Putin’s conditions were.

Macron has spoken
frequently to Putin in the last month but has had little success in deescalating
the crisis.

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Russia,
meanwhile, expressed willingness to work with the United States on security
issues and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

“If the
Americans are ready for this, we will, of course, be able to resume dialogue
and are determined to do so, as well as to work on the START, where there is
also a certain pause,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Channel One,
state media RIA Novosti reported.

“It all depends
on Washington,” he added.

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Ryabkov said
Russia did not stop dialogue with the US. “We have not withdrawn from the
US strategic stability dialogue. It has been suspended by Washington,
apparently under the illusion that we need this dialogue more than Washington.
Absolutely not,” Ryabkov said.