"It was noted that the Russian Armed Forces had long refrained from precision missile strikes against certain targets on the territory of Ukraine," a Kremlin readout of the telephone call begins. "But now such measures have become a forced and inevitable response to Kyiv's provocative attacks on Russia's civilian infrastructure."

The statement emphasizes NATO's weapons pipeline into Kiev: "Attention was drawn to the destructive line of Western states, including Germany, that are pumping the Kyiv regime with weapons, and are training the Ukrainian military."

Putin reminded Scholz of the West's deep "political and financial support" which has made the potential for any meaningful ceasefire negotiations impossible, from Moscow's perspective. He said constant and largescale military support from allies "leads to the fact that Kyiv completely rejects the idea of any negotiations."

Meanwhile, there appears to be external verification that the next significant aerial attack on Ukraine is coming soon, with Sky News Australia citing military analysts who say new satellite images show Russia is planning an 'imminent' large scale missile strike on Ukraine.

According to details in the report:

Satellite images released by US-based Maxar Technologies show a build-up of two dozen Tu-95 and Tu-160 long-range bombers at Engels-2 air base in Saratov Oblast, 700km from the Russia-Ukrainian border.