Sir Keir Starmer insisted he had “no plans” to speak with Vladimir Putin as Olaf Scholz faced a growing backlash over his call with the Russian president.

While failing to directly criticise the German chancellor, the Prime Minister offered no endorsement of Mr Scholz’s Friday call with Putin.

“It’s a matter for Chancellor Scholz who he speaks to. I have no plans to speak to Putin,” Sir Keir told reporters as he made his way to the G20 summit on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro.

Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine proved “no one will stop Putin with phone calls” and that “telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West”.

Mr Scholz has defended his Friday call to Putin, saying it would not be good if Donald Trump, the US president-elect, was in regular contact with the Russian leader without any European dialogue.

But he reiterated his country’s support for Ukraine and said “nothing can be decided without Kyiv’s consent”.

Moscow launched more than 210 missiles and drones across Ukraine on Saturday night, damaging energy and military infrastructure.

The attack caused Poland’s air forces to scramble all on-duty fighter jets, reaching the “highest state of readiness”, according to the operational command of the country’s armed forces.

The attack, which killed at least seven people, was Putin’s response to those who “called and visited him recently”, Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said.