The office of French President Emmanuel Macron says his three-way call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Russian President Vladimir Putin was very frank and also difficult.
French officials said the Russian leader gave no indication during the call Saturday lasting more than an hour that he intends to stop the fighting in Ukraine.
European leaders are working on what they describe as a punishing new set of massive economic sanctions against Moscow in the hope of getting Putin to change his mind.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said about 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in fighting since the start of the Russian invasion.
Speaking at a news conference Saturday, Zelenskyy said it would take Russia to carpet-bomb the Ukrainian capital and kill its residents to take the city.
He added that if that is their goal, let them come.
Zelenskyy said that if they carry out carpet bombings and wipe off the historic memory of the entire region, the history of Kyivan Rus, the history of Europe, they could enter Kyiv.
