Kremlin has confirmed a scheduled phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, today amid the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, media reports said. "Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to have a telephone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on Sunday," Sputnik News Agency reported Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Tensions have built up in Eastern Ukraine since Russia`s build-up of around 1,50,000 troops just over the border from the Donbas region in the east, in Belarus to the north and Crimea to the south. Russia claims the surge of forces, which is the biggest build-up of military might in Europe since the Cold War, has always been for military exercises and that it poses no threat to Ukraine or any other nation.