Austria's Defence Minister still insists that immediate participation in Ukraine's mine clearance violates neutrality

Klaudia Tanner, the Minister of Defence of Austria, has not changed her opinion regarding the possible participation of the state in mine clearance in Ukraine before the end of hostilities, considering it a violation of constitutional neutrality.

Source: Tanner in an interview with the Austrian radio station Ö1 on Thursday, as European Pravda reports 

Details: According to the Austrian Minister of Defence, it is currently impossible to "distinguish between humanitarian and military mine clearance" in Ukraine. She also indicated that Austria's demining equipment is currently deployed in the Western Balkans.

At the same time, Tanner said that Austrian authorities would financially support Ukraine's humanitarian demining operation at the level of the European Union.

She disagreed with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen, who the day before called for immediate assistance to Ukraine with humanitarian mine clearance.

As reported, the Defence Minister of Austria believes that help in demining Ukraine should be provided only after the end of the war in Ukraine because "demining in wartime is against the constitutional right".

Tanner said there was no guarantee that mine clearance operations "would not be used by belligerents to launch a strategic attack because the roads would become safer for traffic again".

The Ukrainian side previously appealed to Austria for help in demining the territories. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this during his address to the parliamentarians of Austria.

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