Ukraine Russia Conflict: Austria's neutral status here to stay, says Foreign Minister

The foreign minister of Austria said his country would retain its neutral status even as EU allies Sweden and Finland overhauled decades-long foreign policy stances to apply for Nato membership in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

“The situation for us looks a little different,” Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg said. 

Mr Schallenberg said that the country, which obtains 80% of its natural gas from Russia, would continue to provide humanitarian support to Ukraine rather than lethal weapons.

“We are helping on a large scale but not with war munition and I think help for Ukraine cannot only be reduced to war munition,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched the war on Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said that Europe risked paying the most expensive energy prices in the world by abandoning Russian energy supplies. A village in Russia’s western province of Kursk bordering Ukraine came under Ukrainian fire, the regional governor said, but there were no injuries. Also, Finland and Sweden announced they will submit their bids to join Nato together, despite Turkey’s threat to block the military alliance’s expansion. Finland’s parliament overwhelmingly approved a government proposal to join Nato, a day after Sweden confirmed its intention to join the alliance. However, Eight people have died and 12 were wounded after Russia launched a missile strike on the village of Desna in the northern Ukrainian region of Chernihiv, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service. The regional governor, Viacheslav Chaus, said Russia launched four missiles at around 5 am local time on Tuesday.