PARIS, February 20. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron is holding talks with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky after a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, AFP reported citing the Elysee Palace.

Telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin lasted for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Now Macron is talking on the phone with President Zelensky, the agency reported.

Putin and Macron last spoke over the phone on February 12. On February 7, the presidents held face-to-face talks in the Kremlin. Earlier, the leaders of Russia and France also spoke on the phone three times. After his visit to Moscow, the French president visited Kiev.

The situation along the contact line in eastern Ukraine took a turn for the worse on the morning of February 17. The Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics reported some of the most intensive shelling by Kiev forces in recent months. The shelling damaged some civilian facilities.

On Friday, the leaders of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics announced the evacuation of the republics’ inhabitants to Russia, citing the increasing threat of hostilities.