Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer is set to be the first European leader to hold face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Moscow invaded Ukraine, reports TurkicWorld with the reference Euronews.

Nehammer is travelling to the Russian capital on Monday and said that he aimed to act as a "bridge-builder" between Moscow and Kyiv.

He said he is hoping to "do everything possible to make (the war) stop" and to "ensure that steps are taken in the direction of peace".

"We are militarily neutral, but there are exceptions to neutrality. We are not neutral when it comes to naming crimes and discussing them," he said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Saturday.

Austria is not a member of NATO, having declared itself permanently neutral in 1955. The Alpine country has not sent weapons to Ukraine, instead providing humanitarian aid and body armour and helmets for civilians.