“The Chancellor and the French President called on the Russian President to facilitate negotiations in the Normandy format.

The interlocutor agreed to ask the foreign ministers to meet in the near future on this matter, "RIA Novosti quoted Seibert as saying.

He said that Merkel and Macron spoke on Monday by phone, first with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and then with Putin.

Earlier it was reported that Putin, Merkel and Macron discussed the situation in Ukraine in a telephone conversation.