The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Austria Alexander Schallenberg called for maintaining a sense of moderation in relation to Russia and "not bending the stick" in restrictions against the Russians.
This is reported by Kronen Zeitung.
"We must not bend the stick, for example, by introducing a ban on visas for 144 million Russians," said the Austrian foreign minister, adding that Russia will remain a part of European history and culture.
"The brutal war of aggression that Russia is waging is madness. At the same time, we also have to think about the next day, the next week and the next months. Because the European security architecture will somehow have to include Russia in the future as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and as a nuclear power. The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) must be preserved," he noted.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited the head of the Austrian Foreign Ministry to visit the Dnipro, where a Russian missile strike killed 44 people.
"We appreciate the cooperation with Austria, we are grateful for the support of the UN and the EU, and we are waiting for the visit of the Austrian minister to Ukraine to develop the dialogue in this regard. In particular, we invite the head of Austrian diplomacy to visit Dnipro. There he will have the opportunity to repeat his arguments about a sense of proportion to the relatives of forty-four people who died as a result of a Russian missile attack on a high-rise building. Or in front of those whose loved ones have not yet been found under the rubble," noted the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko.
He added that calls to continue the dialogue with Russia, to respect its history and culture increase the Kremlinʼs sense of impunity and are perceived by it exclusively as an invitation to continue the genocide of Ukrainians.
- On January 14, Russia massively attacked Ukraine with missiles. According to the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the occupiers fired 38 missiles of various types. The Air Defense Forces destroyed 25 of them. One of the X-22 cruise missiles hit a high-rise building in Dnipro. The Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces stressed that it is currently not capable of shooting down missiles of this type, and previous reports about the alleged "shooting down" of the X-22 by Ukraine were false.