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.

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.

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.