German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday he planned to speak to Russia's President Vladimir Putin by phone soon to urge him to withdraw Russia's troops from Ukraine.
Addressing a convention of the German Protestant church in Nuremberg, Scholz said he had spoken to Putin by telephone in the past.
"I plan to do it again soon. It's not reasonable to force Ukraine to approve and accept the raid that Putin has perpetrated and that parts of Ukraine become Russian just like that," he said, adding he would work to ensure that NATO does not get drawn into the war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS news agency that no talks with Scholz were currently planned in Putin's schedule.
Moscow and Kyiv both reported heavy fighting in Ukraine on Friday, but it remained uncertain whether Ukraine's full-scale long-anticipated counterattack was underway.
The counteroffensive aimed at penetrating Russian defences and driving out occupying forces is ultimately expected to involve thousands of Ukrainian troops trained and equipped by Western countries, including Germany.
Russia fired missiles and drones at targets across Ukraine in the early hours of Saturday, killing three civilians in the Black Sea city of Odesa and striking a military airfield in the central Poltava region, Kyiv authorities said.
A man missing for more than 26 years has been found alive in his neighbour's cellar, just a few hundred metres from his family home. Omar bin Omran was reportedly kidnapped as a teenager and was discovered on Sunday.
China will always be a good neighbor, friend and partner of mutual trust with Russia, the state television quoted China president Xi Jinping as saying, as he mets Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is no longer in a life-threatening condition after he was shot in an assassination attempt when leaving a government meeting on Wednesday, a government minister said.
US President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to face off in two debates on June 27 and Sept. 10, setting up the highest stakes moments yet of the race for the White House.
The number of people killed by weekend flash floods and mud slides in Indonesia's West Sumatra province has risen to 67 and 20 are still missing, authorities said on Thursday, as the government plans to relocate survivors to safer areas.
The UAE's President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has ordered the dispatch of aid to support those affected by heavy rains and floods in Brazil.
The UAE has reiterated its firm support for the rights of the Palestinian people and called for collective international action to put an end to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.