Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, he said, adding he hoped to help build bridges between Russia and Ukraine and stop the “war of aggression”.

Nehammer’s meeting would be the first face-to-face encounter between Putin and a European Union leader since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, triggering a broad Western effort to isolate Moscow.

“I’m going to meet Vladimir #Putin in Moscow tomorrow,” Nehammer wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

“We are militarily neutral, but (have) a clear position on the Russian war of aggression against #Ukraine,” he wrote, referring to Austria’s position. “It must stop! It needs humanitarian corridors, ceasefire & full investigation of war crimes.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed to RIA news agency that Putin would be holding talks with Nehammer on Monday.

The Russian leader has been largely shunned by Western leaders since the start of the conflict, though he met Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Kremlin in early March.

more at reuters.com