NATO ally Poland has said "telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support" for Ukraine as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his first call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in roughly two years. "No one will stop Putin with phone calls," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.

For the first time in two years, a head of state of a major Western country has spoken with Vladimir Putin, breaking with the Western pattern of isolating the Russian president.On November 15, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz initiated a phone call with Putin.