“This is not a friendly visit. I have just come from Ukraine and have seen with my own eyes the immeasurable suffering caused by the Russian war of aggression,” Nehammer was quoted as saying in a statement from his office after the meeting outside Moscow.
“I made the decision to go to Moscow, look President Putin in the eye and confront him with what I saw,” the Chancellor said in an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson on Wednesday.
When asked about Putin’s thinking during the meeting, Nehammer said Putin was very tough and clear in his messages.
“From his point of view, he has to defend the Russian Federation, the Russians living in eastern Ukraine,” he said.
Nehammer said Putin mentioned the Istanbul peace talks and the Austrian Chancellor stressed that he saw these talks as an opportunity to end the war.
The Chancellor said he confronted Putin about war crimes and told him “it is necessary to have international justice, the United Nations, there”.
Nehammer said: “It’s not easy for Putin to talk about war crimes.”
When asked if Putin accepted that war crimes were being committed, Nehammer replied, “Well, you know, it’s President Putin. In that position he was not clear.”
A divisive visit
Nehammer is the first European head of state to meet Putin in person since his invasion. His visit divided opinions among EU leaders, with some expressing skepticism about the engagement with the Russian leader.
The couple spoke for about 75 minutes at Putin’s Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Nehammer’s spokesman said on Monday, in conversations the Austrian leader described him as “very direct, frank and tough”.
Prior to his visit to Russia, Nehammer met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and visited the city of Bucha, where the bodies of unarmed civilians were found strewn on public roads after a month of Russian occupation.
“I addressed the serious war crimes in Bucha and elsewhere and stressed that everyone responsible for them must be held accountable,” Nehammer said, according to his office. “I also made it clear to President Putin that sanctions against Russia will remain in place and will continue to be tightened as long as people are dying in Ukraine.”
The Austrian leader said Putin accused Ukrainians of being “responsible for the crimes in Bucha”. However, video footage shows Russian forces gunning down a civilian there.
Austria is militarily neutral, but its government has joined its neighbors in condemning Putin’s invasion.
The Chancellor said he raised the issue of evacuation corridors with Putin after repeated attempts to evacuate Ukraine via Russian attacks. Ukrainian officials said dozens of people, including several children, were killed in a Russian attack on the Kramatorsk train station on Friday.
“I have also made it clear to the Russian President that humanitarian corridors are urgently needed to bring drinking water and food to the besieged cities and to bring out women, children and the wounded,” Nehammer said in his statement.
Nehammer cited “a sense of responsibility, leaving no stone unturned” as the reason for looking for a meeting with Putin.
At least 1,892 civilians have been killed and 2,558 injured since the war in Ukraine began in February, according to the United Nations.
Nadine Schmidt, Nic Robertson and Rob Picheta contributed coverage.