“Keep calm” – Ukraine: Tanner sees “new level of escalation”

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Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner sees a “new level of escalation” in the conflict following the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, signed by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. “We will certainly not recognize the annexed territories,” the ÖVP politician said on Wednesday. At the same time, she called for “keep calm” in view of the discussion about Putin’s possible use of nuclear weapons.

“You can’t rule out anything because no one can look inside Putin’s head,” Tanner said when asked if the Kremlin boss could use nuclear weapons to “defend” areas he now considers Russian. When asked about the statement by the former chief of staff and current senior military officer of the EU, Robert Brieger, that a military response to the use of nuclear weapons is “out of the question”, the minister emphasized: “You cannot close in this times nothing at all.” It is important that the European Union now maintains its unity.

Visit of the Cypriot counterpart Petrides
Tanner commented on the sidelines of a visit from her Cypriot counterpart, Charalambos Petrides, whom she received with military honors on Wednesday at the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Vienna’s Rossauer Kaserne. The challenges and positions of the Common Security Policy allow the two states to move closer together. Austria and Cyprus feel strongly affected by illegal migration. At the same time, together with Malta and Ireland, they belong to the group of non-aligned or neutral EU states, which has shrunk significantly as a result of NATO’s northern expansion.

Less budget for the army than promised
On the internal affairs front, the increase in the federal army budget promised by Tanner and Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) at the start of the Ukraine war now appears to be significantly smaller. Although the military will receive one percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2023, it will have to pay army pensions in the future, the “Presse” reports Wednesday.

Military insiders stunned
Pensions account for 0.15 percent of GDP, the report said. This leaves the army with 0.85 percent. This corresponds to an increase of only 0.22 percentage point from the current 0.63 to 0.85 percent. Several insiders confirmed these plans on Wednesday and were stunned by the change. Talking about “sleight of hand,” the military wonders why the Defense Department is suddenly the only one to pay its own pensions. According to this logic, the Ministry of the Interior should also pay the police pensions in the future. The department management justifies this change with the fact that this calculation method is internationally accepted.

According to the newspaper report, the budget also foresees an annual increase of 0.1 percent in GDP until the announced 1.5 percent is reached. There may also be a special investment program, Tanner said of ten billion euros. Investments are made in the personal protection of soldiers, mobility, the tank fleet and air defence.

Source: Krone

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