Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the need to increase sanctions against Russia on Wednesday saying that the “terrorist state must feel the price of terror.”
“I stressed the need to increase sanctions against Russia and our team stressed that the terrorists state must feel the price of a terror and its capacity to continue aggression should be restricted,” Zelensky said in a news conference after meeting with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen in Kyiv.
Zelensky continued to put pressure on Austrian businesses to “step up” their cooperation with Ukraine and help to rebuild and modernize the country’s energy systems, telling businesses to leave Russia and set up in Ukraine.
“We know the situation concerning Austrian business, which despite the brutal Russian terror, are not leaving Russia, and continue to support the terrorist state, we believe with their own taxes,” Zelensky said. “And therefore, we would like these businesses to go to Ukraine instead.”
He also urged individual Austrian companies not to “betray Austrian society,” saying it’s an important issue which will be resolved on the basis of “shared values of freedom, democracy and human rights.”
Zelensky’s comments come as Van der Bellen visited Kyiv on Wednesday to discuss financial and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.