AUSTRIA, August 22 - Six months after the start of the Russian war of aggression and on the eve of Ukraine's Independence Day, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg represented Austria on 23 August 2022 at the Crimea Platform's virtual summit. The initiative was launched in Kyiv last year. The Platform aims to restore Ukraine's full sovereignty over Crimea in accordance with international law.

For the past six months, Russia has been trying to redraw the European borders with tanks and missiles. Those six months, marked by atrocities and war crimes, are already etched into our collective memory. For six months, Russia has made a mockery of international law and our security order,

said Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, underlining right at the beginning of his speech the sheer brutality of the Russian aggression, for which there should be no impunity.

Although not fully understood in 2014, the illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol by the Russian Federation was merely the beginning of a destructive, aggressive policy of annihilation against sovereign Ukraine unprecedented since World War II. However, the Ukrainian population faced the aggression with courage and determination. Foreign Minister Schallenberg paid tribute to this tireless commitment and assured the Ukrainian population of Austria’s full support.

I assure you that Austria will continue to stand by the Ukrainian people. We will continue to support Ukraine as an independent, free, democratic and prosperous part of our European family,

stated  Foreign Minister Schallenberg.

The Foreign Minister also reaffirmed Austria's full approval of the sanctions against Russia which were adopted at EU level. The most far-reaching sanctions regime ever imposed on a country would make it clear that might was not right.

Finally, Foreign Minister Schallenberg signed a joint summit declaration together with more than 50 other high-ranking participants from four continents.