Austria’s Chancellor Meets With Putin To Talk About ‘Atrocities’ In Ukraine

Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he went to Moscow to “look into President Putin’s eyes and confront him with what I saw” in Ukraine, he told CNN on Wednesday (13).

Nehammer said he raised alleged Russian atrocities in Ukraine during a “difficult” and hostile meeting on Monday with Vladimir Putin – the first Western meeting with the Russian president since he invaded Ukraine in February.

“This is not a friendly visit. I have just arrived from Ukraine and I have seen with my own eyes the immeasurable suffering caused by the Russian war of aggression,” Nehammer said in a statement released by his office after the meeting outside Moscow.

“I made the decision to go to Moscow, look President Putin in the eye and confront him with what I saw,” the chancellor said in an interview with Becky Anderson of CNNon Wednesday (13).

When asked about Putin’s mindset during the meeting, Nehammer said Putin was very tough and clear in his messages.

“In his view, he has to defend the Russian Federation, the Russians who live in eastern Ukraine,” he said.

Nehammer said Putin mentioned the Istanbul peace talks, and the Austrian chancellor stressed that he sees an opportunity in those talks to end the war.

The chancellor said he confronted Putin about war crimes and told him that “it is necessary to have international justice, to have the United Nations (UN) there”.

Nehammer said that “it is not easy for Putin to talk about war crimes”.

Asked if Putin accepted war crimes being committed, Nehammer replied: “Well, you know, it’s President Putin. In this position, he was unclear.”

a divisive visit

Nehammer is the first European leader to meet Putin face-to-face since his invasion. His visit has divided opinion among EU leaders, with some expressing skepticism about getting involved with the Russian leader.

The pair spoke for about 75 minutes at Putin’s residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, near Moscow, Nehammer’s spokesman said on Monday, in conversations that the Austrian leader described as “very direct, open and tough”.

Before visiting Russia, Nehammer met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev and visited the town of Bucha, where bodies of unarmed civilians were found strewn across public streets after a month of Russian occupation.

“I addressed the serious war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere and emphasized that all those responsible for them must be held accountable,” Nehammer said, according to the statement released by his office.

“I also told President Putin in no uncertain terms that sanctions against Russia will remain in place and will continue to be tightened while people are dying in Ukraine.”

The Austrian leader said Putin blamed Ukrainians “for the crimes in Bucha”. Video footage, however, shows Russian forces killing a civilian there.

Austria is militarily neutral, but its government has joined its neighbors in condemning Putin’s invasion.

The chancellor said he raised the issue of evacuation corridors with Putin, after repeated instances in which evacuation attempts in Ukraine were thwarted by Russian attacks. Ukrainian officials said a Russian attack on the Kramatorsk train station on Friday killed dozens of people, including several children.

“I also made it clear to the Russian president that there is an urgent need for humanitarian corridors to bring clean water and food to besieged cities and bring in women, children and the wounded,” Nehammer said in his statement.

Nehammer cited “a sense of responsibility to leave no stone unturned” as his reason for seeking the meeting with Putin, saying: “For me, there is no alternative to seeking direct talks with Russia either, despite all the big differences.”

According to the UN), at least 1,892 civilians have been killed and 2,558 wounded since the war in Ukraine began in February.

With information from Nadine Schmidt, Nic Robertson and Rob Picheta