VIENNA, September 5. /TASS/. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has announced that his country is ready to provide a venue for talks on Ukraine.

"We take note of the Russian president [Vladimir Putin’s] statements regarding his openness for peace talks with Ukraine. Any negotiations must take place without preconditions and at eye level. Austria will be ready to support a just and lasting peace based on international law and to serve as venue for negotiations as the seat of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe — TASS)," the politician said on his X page.

Earlier, at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), Putin said that Russia has never refused negotiations on the Ukrainian conflict settlement, but they should be based on the Istanbul agreements and not on ephemeral demands.