Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Austria's Chancellor to the Kremlin on Monday for talks related to the situation in Ukraine.
Putin and Zelensky Meeting Possible Upon Peace Treaty Readiness
Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung cited sources close to the Austrian chancellor on Sunday as saying that Nehammer will travel to Moscow to discuss the war in Ukraine with Putin.
Nehammer visited Ukraine on Saturday and met with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, and the mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko. He also visited the town of Bucha, where Ukraine claims Russia committed a war crime against civilians, while Russia provided facts that showed its forces had left the town days earlier.
The Austrian chancellor pledged that the EU would continue to increase sanctions against Russia "until the war stops."
���� Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer is travelling *today* to Moscow to hold face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin. It's the first European leader to do so since Moscow invaded Ukraine.https://t.co/yUy70kGZzv
— Jorge Liboreiro (@JorgeLiboreiro) April 11, 2022
"As long as people are dying, every sanction is still insufficient," he said, adding that Austrian embassy staff will return to Kiev from western Ukraine.
On Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine's accession to the European Union would be expedited.
Giving the Ukrainian President a questionnaire that forms a starting point for the membership decision, von der Leyen said, "It will not, as usual, be a matter of years to form this opinion but I think a matter of weeks." Zelensky has stated he would provide the response within a week.