Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday defended the infamous pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that agreed to divide up eastern Europe during a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to carve up eastern Europe between them in a secret clause of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on non-aggression.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday said there was still no genuine ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, as she paid a visit to Moscow to commemorate millions of Soviet soldiers and civilians who died in WWII.

"Unfortunately we still do not have a ceasefire today," Merkel said after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

The U.S. intelligence agency NSA asked its German partner service BND to spy on the European country's engineering and technology giant Siemens, a German newspaper reported Sunday.

In the latest report on a widening spying scandal, the newspaper said the National Security Agency suspected that Siemens was supplying communications technology to a Russian secret service, said the newspaper, citing unnamed U.S. intelligence sources.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday paid tribute to Soviet soldiers killed in WWII as she called for cooperation with Russia amid tensions over Ukraine.

Merkel flew to Moscow to lay a wreath at the grave of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin walls, in an apparent compromise gesture after she skipped Russia's main festivities on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday presided over a huge military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, brushing off a snub by Western leaders over Ukraine.

In what is seen as punishment for the Kremlin's meddling in Ukraine, Western countries led by Russia's World War II allies are boycotting the May 9 festivities, leaving Putin to mark the day in the company of the leaders of China, Cuba and other Moscow-friendly figures.

The scandal over Germany's alleged joint spying with the U.S. on European officials and companies confirms the "massive" scale of international espionage going on, fugitive U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden said in comments published in the German press Friday.

"Massive surveillance is a reality. Industrial espionage is practiced and the intelligence services are working beyond the control of the representatives of the people and of justice," Snowden told Der Spiegel weekly.  

Two German navy ships on Friday rescued nearly 400 migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, the defense ministry said, days after it joined a beefed-up EU mission.

In the first operation, the German frigate Hessen went to the aid of a stricken wooden vessel carrying roughly 200 migrants, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Europe held somber ceremonies to mark 70 years since victory over Nazi Germany on Friday as leaders warned of modern day threats such as the war in Ukraine and Islamic extremism.

Celebrations of the WWII victory in Europe were muted a day before Moscow throws a massive military parade which is being snubbed by Western leaders due to tensions over the crisis in Ukraine.

Germany's industrial output and its trade surplus were both hit by surprise falls in March, according to provisional figures published Friday by the federal statistics office, Destatis.

The slight fall of 0.5 percent in production after seasonal adjustments was counter to analyst expectations, which had predicted a modest rise of 0.4 per cent, said financial data firm Factset. 

Germany's secret service has severely restricted cooperation with its U.S. partner the NSA in response to a scandal over their alleged joint spying on European officials and companies, media reported Thursday.

The foreign intelligence agency BND this week stopped sharing Internet surveillance data with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), passing on only fax and phone intercepts, the reports said.