Emmanuel Macron to hold talks with Vladimir Putin today as war against Ukraine escalates

French President Emmanuel Macron will speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin today. According to the French President's office, the call is scheduled to take place around 12:00 p.m. in Paris (1000 GMT). Although the two spoke frequently in the days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Macron last spoke with Putin on March 29.

The discussion on Tuesday will be initiated by Macron and will follow a call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday, according to the Elysee Palace. Meanwhile, Russian soldiers launched rockets at a besieged steel mill in Mariupol, Ukraine, and smoke darkened the sky above the plant, where officials say 200 residents remain trapped despite evacuations, as the EU moved to punish Russian oil.

Russia-Ukraine War

The Mariupol steel mill, which has become the city's last stronghold of resistance, was attacked again a day after the first evacuation of civilians. More than 100 people in bombed-out Mariupol, including elderly ladies and mothers with young children, fled the rubble-strewn Azovstal steelworks on Sunday in buses and ambulances for the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, approximately 140 miles (230 kilometres) to the northwest, according to authorities and footage published by both Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russian troops of kidnapping people and taking them against their will to Russia or Russian-controlled territory. The Kremlin has refuted this claim. According to Ukraine's Azov Battalion, which is supporting in the mill's defence, the Russian attack on the massive complex by air, tank, and ship resumed after the partial evacuation.

(With agency inputs)

Image: AP