The International Criminal Court in March 2023 issued an arrest warrant of the head of the Kremlin on suspicion of abduction of Ukrainian children.
Austria, where a number of international organizations are located, in particular the OSCE, “has many years of experience in conducting international meetings and promoting dialogue and is ready to become a venue and an intermediary in possible peace negotiations, if there is the will of the parties,” the ministry said.
The foreign ministry reminded that Austria is the contractual side of the Roman Charter of the International Criminal Court (MUS), which previously issued a Putin arrest warrant, but it is possible to conduct consultations with the Mus to ensure Putin’s participation in Vienna.
“All participating states are obliged to fulfill the orders of the Mus for arrest, as well as Austria. At the same time, there is an opportunity, given the agreements on the headquarters with international organizations in Vienna, to come into contact with the Mus to ensure the possibility of Putin,” the Austrian Foreign Ministry noted.
Whether the Austrian side received any reaction from the Russian Federation about the idea of conducting peace negotiations in Vienna, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not answer.
Context
On August 18, in Washington, first a meeting of Zelensky with Trump was held, and later the summit began in a wider format with the participation of representatives of the EU and individual European countries. On the same day, Trump called Putin on the phone, and later stated that he began organizing a meeting between him and Zelensky.
On August 18, Sky News wrote that a possible trilateral summit with the participation of the leaders of Ukraine, the USA and the Russian Federation will take place in Europe-Italy Prime Minister George Melony proposed as the venue of Rome, and French President Emmanuel Macron-Geneva. EU diplomats also considered other possible locations, including Hungarian Budapest and Finnish Helsinki, journalists noted.
On August 19, the German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz stated in Washington that Zelensky’s negotiations with Putin could take place within two weeks. Zelensky said on the same day that he knows no details about a bilateral meeting.
The head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andrei Ermak in an interview with Putin, published in an interview on August 21, said there are several options for meeting Zelensky with Putin, among them – Geneva, Istanbul, Vatican, Saudi Arabia.
On the same day, Zelensky said that his bilateral meeting with Putin should take place in the “neutral” Europe.
