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Emmanuel Macron has said the “paradox” of Vladimir Putin is that he is not an “unpleasant” man in person, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The French leader appeared on Saturday's episode of Les Rencontres du Papotin, a programme where autistic journalists interview famous people.

“First of all, when you meet him, he is not unpleasant. That’s the paradox, you see," Mr Macron said in the interview, which was recorded in late November.

Mr Macron has long been an advocate of maintaining a dialogue with Putin since his invasion of Ukraine last February.

Over the summer he angered Kyiv by declaring that Western governments should not "humiliate" the Russian president.

In recent days, however, the French leader became the first Western ally to agree to send Western armoured vehicles to Ukraine, in a major shift in policy.

In his New Year's TV address, Mr Macron also vowed to Ukrainians that France will "help you to victory," the first time he has explicitly supported a battlefield victory for Kyiv.