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Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen did not expect a general attack on the entire Republic of Ukraine – as hardly anyone else did. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war destroys more than infrastructure and human lives, “it is destroying trust. “It is now necessary to stop the killing immediately.
“Both sides must be aware that any further escalation must be avoided,” Van der Bellen said in the Austrian Television ORF ZIB Spezial yesterday. He added that it would take a long time to restore trust. Besides, he could not imagine that the Russian population was behind this war.
Van der Bellen does not see a nuclear danger. The President appealed that all states must do everything to prevent a further escalation. The EU must continue to act decisively and quickly, he said. There would now be “unparalleled chaos” if the EU did not exist.
Putin’s war, however, had achieved swift and decisive action by the EU: “That is an unintended consequence of the war.” The same could be said of NATO, he said. Austria has had good experiences with neutrality – on the Golan Heights and in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Van der Bellen said.
President welcomes budget increase for the army.
As commander-in-chief of the Austrian Armed Forces, he welcomed that the army was now to receive more money. He had wanted this for a long time. The government had done the right thing.
Van der Bellen said his heart swells at the willingness to take in people who have fled Ukraine. He expressed confidence “that we will get the conflict under control and that one day we will go to Kyiv and celebrate there.” He did not dare to name a time frame for this.
- source: ORF.at/agencies/ picture:
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