Putin to hold talks with Austrian Chancellor
Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Austria's Chancellor to the Kremlin on Monday.
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Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer with Ukrainian forces after visiting the site of a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine (AFP)
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to welcome Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer to the Kremlin on Monday.
"Yes, we can confirm this," Peskov said.
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."
"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.
