French President Emmanuel Macron and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have exchanged views on ways to implement the Minsk Agreement, according to France.

In the 90-minute conversation on Saturday, Macron told Putin that serious negotiations were incompatible with an escalation of tensions in Ukraine, the presidential office in Paris said.

Both heads of state had expressed "the will to continue the dialogue".

American President Joe Biden also wanted to call Putin on Saturday.

The United States, meanwhile, has announced that it will withdraw nearly all of Ukraine's remaining troops amid escalating tensions with Russia.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has "ordered the temporary relocation of the 160 members of the Florida National Guard," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Saturday.

The soldiers should therefore be stationed in another European country.

The US government continues to support the Ukrainian armed forces, Kirby said.

However, the deployment of the soldiers offers "flexibility in securing allies and deterring aggression".

Since 2015, National Guard reservists have been advising and training the Ukrainian army together with soldiers from other NATO countries, primarily Canada and Germany.

On Saturday, the US State Department also asked all employees of the embassy in Kiev who were not urgently needed to leave the country.

The ministry has "ordered the departure of most directly employed staff" due to the ongoing threat of Russian military action, an updated travel advisory said.

The consular service in the embassy has been suspended, and a consular presence will be maintained in Lviv in western Ukraine for emergencies.

The government had repeatedly warned in the past few days that a Russian attack on Ukraine could begin "at any time" and urged citizens to leave the country immediately.

Russia itself also withdrew parts of its diplomatic staff from the neighboring country on Saturday.

Many other countries, including Germany, asked their citizens to leave the country.

According to Western sources, Russia has massed more than 100,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border in recent weeks.

The troop build-up and Russian military exercises in neighboring Belarus and in the Black Sea are fueling fears in the West of an invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow rejects any attack plans and at the same time accuses Kiev and NATO of "provocations".