Germany does not expect concrete results from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, but hopes to gain insight into what he hopes to achieve with the military build-up on the border of Ukraine, a German government source said on Sunday.

Scholz is set to travel on Tuesday to Moscow to meet Putin, hot on the heels of French President Emmanuel Macron, as part of a whirlwind of diplomatic meetings aiming to deescalate tensions on the border between Russia and Ukraine.