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Talks with Putin were harsh, open, Austrian Chancellor says — report

According to Karl Nehammer’s statement, "this was not a friendly visit"

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer EPA-EFE/DRAGAN TATIC

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer

© EPA-EFE/DRAGAN TATIC

VIENNA, April 11. /TASS/. The talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin were very harsh and open, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said after the meeting in Moscow, the Austrian Press Agency reported Monday.

According to Nehammer’s statement, "this was not a friendly visit."

"My most important message to Putin was that this war must finally end, because there are losers on both sides of a war," he said.

The Chancellor expressed his opinion that the people involved in "serious war crimes in [Ukraine’s] Bucha ad other places" must be brought to responsibility.

"I also made it perfectly clear for Putin that the sanctions against Russia will remain and will become harsher for as long as people continue dying in Ukraine," Nehammer added.

Nehammer has become the first EU leader to meet with Putin after the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. Before that, Nehammer met with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev.

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