A telephone conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin about the situation in Ukraine got underway on Sunday as planned, Macron’s office said.

The call, described by the French side as part of a last-ditch effort to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine, began at 11 AM (1000 GMT), the presidency said.

It comes two weeks after Macron went to Moscow to persuade Putin to hold back from an invasion.

The talks are seen as “the final possible and necessary efforts to avoid a major conflict in Ukraine,” the Elysee said.

The call comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Macron that he would not respond to what he called Russia’s “provocations”, according to the Elysee, and remained open to “dialogue” with Moscow.

But in a speech to the Munich Security Conference he also called on western governments to stop what he said was “a policy of appeasement” towards Putin.