The EU should promote peace initiatives to resolve the Ukrainian conflict instead of approving another package of anti-Russian sanctions on the anniversary of the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, said the member of the National Council (lower house of parliament) of Austria from the opposition Freedom Party of Austria Petra Steger, Ednews informs referring to TASS.

“After twelve packages of sanctions and billions in arms deliveries, the impact of these EU measures is more than modest. This is explained by the fact that Russia manages to maintain the stability of its economy and simply redirect imports through other countries. On the other hand, European industry is greatly affected by high energy prices,” she noted.

“This unfortunate sanction regime, which threatens prosperity and pushes peace further away, must finally end. The time has come to promote peace initiatives. In addition to the EU, Austria could also contribute to this matter, but the government so far prefers to bury our constitutionally guaranteed neutrality and support the self-destructive regime of sanctions without any reservations,” the deputy emphasized.

According to Steger, the ruling coalition supports EU sanctions and betrays the neutrality prescribed by the Austrian constitution “against the will of the population.”