Austria's walkout and Russia's nuclear plan for Belarus
Two developments reported in the days before 31 March 2023 showed how the war shaped politics in Vienna and the wider region.
What did the war in Ukraine mean for politics beyond its borders by 31 March 2023? Two reports from the preceding days offer a partial answer.
On 30 March 2023, lawmakers from the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria walked out of the lower house of Austria's parliament during a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They described their protest as a response to what they saw as a violation of Austria's national principle of neutrality. The walkout turned an address by Ukraine's president into a point of domestic argument over neutrality.
A few days earlier, on 25 March 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by July. The missiles were to be operated by Russian forces. It would be the first time Russian nuclear weapons had been deployed abroad since 1996.
The two events were separate and are not linked by any stated cause. Together they show the war's reach: Kyiv's diplomacy tested a European parliament's debate over neutrality, while Moscow set out a military step involving its neighbour Belarus.
