French President Macron urged Russia's Putin to respect sovereignty of neighbour states - Elysee

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that Russia needed to respect the sovereignty of its neighbours, a French presidency official said, as Western allies seek to defuse tensions over Ukraine.

The two leaders in a phone call also agreed that their countries would pursue the four-way diplomatic discussions within the Normandy format as part of efforts to ease tensions, he added. "President Putin said that he wanted to continue the dialogue and that it was important to work on the implementation of the Minsk accords", the official said, adding that Putin emphasised he did not want the situation to escalate.