VIENNA
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen has called for peace in Ukraine.
In a Twitter post, the Austrian president said he had had a personal meeting with Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Tuesday, upon the latter’s return from Russia. The chancellor informed the president about his visits to Ukraine and Moscow.
“Peace in Ukraine was and will remain our common goal,” Van der Bellen stressed.
On April 11, Nehammer became the first head of an EU government to hold personal talks with the Russian leader since the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine. Prior to that, the Austrian chancellor met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev.
After the meeting, Nehammer said he had conveyed Zelensky’s proposal to meet in person to the Russian president, but “no significant reaction followed.”
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an early morning televised address that he had launched a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request for help from the leaders of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no intention of occupying Ukrainian territories, the sole purpose of the operation, the leader stressed, is the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.
