Austrian leader said he’s not ‘particularly optimistic’ following his talks with Putin

• Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer who met with Putin Monday said he’s not “particularly optimistic” after their talk.
• Nehammer was the first European leader to meet with Putin face-to-face since the start of the Ukraine war.
• “[Putin] calls it special military operations,” Nehammer said. “I call it the war.”

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he was not “particularly optimistic” following his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.

On Monday, Nehammer was the first European leader to meet with Putin face-to-face since the Russian president launched a full-scale military assault on Ukraine in late February.

“At the moment I’m not particularly optimistic after my talks with Putin. The offensive (in Ukraine) is being prepared with determination,” Nehammer said in a press briefing in Moscow, adding that he presented the Russian president “with the facts” during their 75-minute meeting.

“I made it clear to Mr. Putin, his attitude, his view is not shared by anybody,” Nehammer continued. “He sees it as a kind of self-defense operation of the Russian federation. He calls it special military operations. I call it the war.”

The Austrian chancellor said he told Putin that “the sanctions against Russia will stay in place and will be toughened further” as long as people were dying in Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian offensive.

According to Nehammer, Putin was dismissive of the atrocities being committed by Russian troops in Ukraine, including accusations of potential war crimes against Ukrainian civilians, per a report by The New York Times. As the war enters its seventh week, The Washington Post reported that Russian troops are expected to shift its strategy to focus on eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

The territory has been contested since 2014, and a senior US defense official said the conflict that could arise there could be a “knife fight,” as both countries are familiar with the region.

“The Russians and the Ukrainians have been focused on the Donbas for eight years, and [it’s been] for eight years that the Ukrainians have been able to stymie Russia’s larger objectives in the Donbas,” the official said. “But the fighting has been bloody, it’s been stiff. And it’s been pretty consistent for years.”  

Nehammer echoed the sentiment, saying during the Monday press conference that “the battle being threatened cannot be underestimated in its violence.”

Nehammer said Putin told him that “it would be better if [the war] ended soon,” but it was not immediately clear if the Russian president meant via peace talks or continued military assault on Ukraine.

The Austrian leader said “it was also clear and recognizable” that Putin “still has confidence” in the ongoing peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey. The Russian president initially ordered to suspend military operations as the countries first entered peace talks, but Russia later continued its military operation in Ukraine despite rounds of peace talks that have taken place since last month.

In late March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and two Ukrainian negotiators experienced symptoms of suspected poisoning, including such as red eyes and the peeling of skin on their hands and faces. The conditions of those affected have since improved, per the Journal. 

A senior Ukrainian official said peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv resumed on April 1, The Guardian reported last week.