A first step could be a “truce”, says Kurz. The Austrian Chancellor wants to tie Russia’s consents to the progress made in the Ukraine conflict. The Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz wants to tie a gradual decrease of Russia sanctions to political progress in eastern Ukraine.

In this way, the movement should again come into the deadlocked peace process. He had already campaigned as foreign minister, as proposed by the then Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the gradual reduction of sanctions to make concerted progress in eastern Ukraine, said Kurz.

A first step could be a “true ceasefire in eastern Ukraine,” Kurz said in an interview with the newspaper. He criticised that there had been “too little movement” in the conflict in recent months. The government in Ukraine, too, must prove its earnest will in a peace process that Kiev must have a serious interest in progress.

Russia has been facing EU and US economic sanctions since 2014 because of the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

In early November, the US tightened its sanctions once again. At the end of November, a new escalation between Moscow and Kiev took place when the Russian Coast Guard fired at three Ukrainian naval ships in the Straits of Kerch.

Several Ukrainian marines were injured, and 24 crew members were arrested. Kiev and its Western allies condemned the Russian attack and demanded the release of the Marines.