The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it was France that asked for French President Emmanuel Macron to speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin after a pause of nearly three years and that the two leaders had a "very substantive" discussion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron have spoken in a phone call for the first time in three years.

Russian President Putin and French President Macron held their first phone call in nearly three years, discussing the Iran-Israel conflict and the war in Ukraine.