BERLIN (AP) — Prominent Russian opposition figures led a march of at least 1,000 people in central Berlin Sunday, criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine and calling for democracy in Russia.

Russian ballet dancer Vladimir Shklyarov died on Saturday6. He was 39. “Tonight, the public's favorite, star premier of the Mariinsky Theatre Vladimir Shklyarov tragically died,” a statement on the Mariinsky Theatre’s website reads,

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his conversation with Vladimir Putin on Friday had given no indication of a shift in the Russian President's thinking on the war in Ukraine but defended his much-criticised decision to phone the Kremlin.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday defended a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that came in for sharp criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "It was important to say as well that he (Putin) should not count on the support for Ukraine of Germany,