Austrian Foreign Minister: No negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine

According to an Ukrinform correspondent, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said this in an interview with the German TV channel Die Welt.

"I hope that this (peace talks to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian war - ed.) will happen in the near future. The key point for me is, and this should be the guiding principle: no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine," he said.

The Austrian minister also said that it is up to Ukraine to decide "when the time for negotiations comes."

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"Peace is always achieved at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield. But we still have the logic of the battlefield on both sides. And, of course, we hope that very soon everything will return to the logic of negotiations. But this decision will be made by Kyiv," said Schallenberg.

He added that it is also important to create "a system in which people in Ukraine will also be confident that Russia will not strike again in a few years."

"Trust is the rarest commodity in this world. And restoring this trust will probably require security guarantees that go far beyond the European Union," the Austrian foreign minister said.

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As reported, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said that he was in favor of keeping open channels of dialogue with Russia, despite its attempts "to seize another state in a neo-imperialist way.