World Blog by humble servant 427 EU leader to meet Putin in Moscow Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer reportedly seeks to become ‘bridge builder’ between two nations

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer is expected to visit Russia on Monday, officials in both Moscow and Vienna have confirmed. The upcoming visit was first reported by Austria's Kronen Zeitung newspaper, which cited government sources saying that the country’s leader was seeking to become a “bridge builder” in an attempt to help broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. The visit has been coordinated with the EU leadership, as well as Nehammer’s German counterpart Olaf Scholz. Nehammer’s office confirmed the upcoming visit to TASS, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reported that the Austrian leader will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Yes. We confirm [the talks],” Peskov told RIA Novosti. On Saturday, Nehammer visited Kiev, meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as other top officials. During his visit, the Chancellor expressed his support for Ukraine, stating that the EU will continue to ramp-up anti-Russian sanctions “until the war stops.” “As long as people are dying, every sanction is still insufficient,” Nehammer stated. Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in late February, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.Russia has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.