Austria calls for Ukraine-Russia talks following Putin statement, offers venue

Ukraine and Russia should enter negotiations "without preconditions," Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer wrote on X.

The politician said Austria has taken note of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's alleged statement about "openness for peace talks with Ukraine."

Nehammer wrote that Vienna is ready to serve as a venue for negotiations, being the host country of the OSCE headquarters.

Austria is prepared to support "a just and lasting peace based on international law."

"Any negotiations must take place without preconditions and at eye level," the politician wrote.

On September 5, during the Eastern Economic Forum, Putin asserted that Russia "has never refused" to engage in negotiations. However, he emphasized that such talks should not be based on "some vague demands," but rather on documents that he claimed were "virtually initialed" in Istanbul.

However, the negotiations with Russia in Istanbul in March 2022 failed. As President Volodymyr Zelenskyy explained, this happened because Putin only knows how to communicate "in the language of ultimatums".

In addition, on June 16, The New York Times reported, citing a draft document that was being worked on from February to April 2022, that the draft of the so-called peace treaty of 2022 contained a clause that allowed Russia to invade Ukraine again and block aid from other guarantors.

Read also: Kuleba names negotiation principles to China: No talks without Ukraine and respect for sovereignty