Austria’s Chancellor Nehammer meets Putin in Moscow

Karl Nehammer

Austria’s Chancellor meets Vladimir Putin on Monday.

(Photo: IMAGO/SEPA.Media)

Berlin Karl Nehammer is the first EU head of government to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Austria’s Chancellor will speak to the Kremlin chief on Monday afternoon, as government spokesman Daniel Kosak announced on Sunday evening. The Kremlin confirmed the meeting.

Kosak said the Austrian head of government’s trip had three goals: The war had to stop. That sounds banal, but it is the most important thing. The Ukrainian government is also expecting a “big battle” in the east of the country in the coming days. For this purpose, agreements for humanitarian corridors would have to be made. Thirdly, Nehammer wants to speak to Putin about the war crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine. These would have to be clarified by an independent international body.

According to the German Press Agency, it was said from those close to the Austrian Chancellor that he was acting in concert with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has meanwhile called Selenski again. The Social Democrat condemned “the heinous war crimes of the Russian military” and promised Ukraine full support, the federal government announced.

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Russian troops have meanwhile withdrawn from northern areas around the capital Kyiv to regroup. General Alexander Dwornikov is said to have taken over the leadership of the Russian war effort, according to US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

Despite the withdrawal, more and more war atrocities are being reported from the Kyiv region. West of Kyiv, for example, Ukrainian authorities say they found dead civilians in a pit near a gas station in Busova. On the route from Kyiv to Zhytomyr, bodies were found in cars that had been shot at, community leader Taras Didych said on television.

Prosecutor General: More than 1,200 dead discovered in the Kyiv region

According to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, more than 1,200 dead Ukrainians have now been discovered in the entire Kyiv region. She called Putin the “major war criminal of the 21st century”.

Ukraine has identified 5,600 suspected war crimes cases involving 500 suspects. This also includes Friday’s rocket attack on the train station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, which killed more than 50 people, Venediktova told British broadcaster Sky News. Russia had denied responsibility for the attack.

According to deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann, Scholz said in his phone call with Selenski that the federal government would do everything possible with international partners to ensure that the crimes were solved. The perpetrators would have to be identified in order to bring them to justice before national and international courts.

Zelenski wrote on Twitter that he also discussed “anti-Russian sanctions, defense and financial support for Ukraine” with Scholz. Zelensky has been demanding more pressure from the West on Russia for days. Among other things, an oil embargo is intended to cut off Russia’s billions in revenue.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also accused Germany of failing to support his country. Some countries in Europe still think in terms of defensive and offensive weapons when considering military equipment for Ukraine, Kuleba told US television network NBC. We still have to work on this. “If we hadn’t wasted so much time discussing the question of defensive versus offensive and what Ukraine needs and doesn’t need, we would be in a different, much stronger position now.”

Kuleba also once again complained that it was a strategic mistake by Germany and France to oppose his country joining NATO in 2008. Ukraine is now paying for this mistake. “If we were a NATO member, then this war wouldn’t exist,” he said.

More coverage of the Ukraine war

The Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk called on Scholz to travel to Kyiv like other Western politicians and to accompany this with “new strategic decisions by the traffic light coalition”. This means arms deliveries.

Melnyk is demanding the immediate delivery of Leopard main battle tanks, Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 2000 self-propelled howitzers and Cobra artillery detectors from Bundeswehr stocks, as well as AGM-84 Harpoon missiles that can be used to attack ships.

The military situation

Russia continued its missile attacks over the weekend, especially in eastern Ukraine. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the headquarters and base of the Dnipro Battalion were destroyed, the Ministry of Defense said in Moscow. Launch complexes of the S-300 air defense system were also destroyed at the military airfield in the garrison town of Chuhuiv in the Kharkov region, as well as several drones, two ammunition depots and three fuel depots in eastern Ukraine. A total of 86 objects were hit within one day.

According to Russian information, more than 700,000 people are said to have fled to Russia from the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and other regions. The information provided by the warring parties cannot be verified.

The Ukrainian military administration reported that several civilians were killed and others injured by shelling in the Donetsk region and the Kharkiv region. Russia is responsible for that. Ukrainian forces killed 80 soldiers and destroyed three tanks and one plane and one helicopter in attacks on Russian troops. According to Ukrainian sources, Russian rocket attacks also devastated the airport in the city of Dnipro. Fighting also continued in the port city of Mariupol.

With agency material

More: The economic historian Tooze pleads for a quick energy embargo against Russia and explains why that would not be a total economic loss for Germany


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