Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander SchallenbergKIEV, Feb. 8Austria is ready to provide support to Kiev and impose sanctions against the Russian Federation in case of its invasion of Ukraine, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Tuesday. by the Russian Federation — ed.) and support the package of sanctions. It will be painful, painful for everyone. Do we want to follow this path? No. But we will have to use such deterrents, «Shallenberg said at a joint press conference in Kiev with Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Tuesday. 
The Foreign Ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria arrived in DonbassAt the same time, he believes that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline should not be the basis for future sanctions against the Russian Federation. «It's a project that's not even working yet. I think it's not right yet to make it the cornerstone of the sanctions regime in order to change the behavior of Moscow. It's like I want to drive a car that hasn't even been filled yet. We're trying to focus on two aspects: Nord Stream 2 and SWIFT,» Shallenberg said. He added that the EU is working on a large-scale package of sanctions against the Russian Federation in the event of an invasion of Ukraine. The plans attributed to Russia to escalate the situation around Ukraine in Moscow are categorically denied and constantly state that they do not threaten anyone, and all such statements are used as a pretext to place more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier, Russia does not create any pretexts for a conflict situation around Ukraine. According to him, Russia does not rule out that the hysteria around Ukraine, hyped by the West, is aimed at covering Kiev's line of sabotaging the Minsk agreements on Donbass. According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, the information hysteria of the United States and NATO on Ukraine is generously framed by lies and fakes. The Russian Federation has repeatedly stated that the Nord Stream 2 project, which the United States actively opposes, promoting its liquefied natural gas in the EU, as well as Ukraine, fearing to lose transit, commercial, it is beneficial to Europe, and urged to stop mentioning it in the context of any politicization. Moscow has also stated that it intends to continue transiting gas through Ukraine.
