Olaf Scholz’s phone call with Vladimir Putin was criticised by European leaders on Sunday as Russian missiles rained down in Ukraine in one of the biggest attacks of the war.Moscow unleashed a massive combined assault of more than 200 missiles and drones across the whole of Ukraine overnight,

Following criticism from Ukraine and the opposition, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Source: Scholz on Sunday, 17 November, before leaving for the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro,

The wildly unpopular chancellor's much-criticized decision to phone the Kremlin comes three months before he faces stiff challenges from the populist left and right.