Ambassador enraged

Uproar over Linz entrepreneur’s trip to eastern Ukraine

Luhansk is one of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow declared annexed in 2022.

(Bild: AFP)

A visit by Linz-based entrepreneur Otto Hirsch to a part of eastern Ukraine occupied by Russia is causing controversy in Austria: after the Russian embassy in Austria drew attention to the visit on social media, the Ukrainian ambassador to Austria, Wassyl Chymynez, accused the Linz-based entrepreneur of being "fully in the service of aggression". Hirsch himself spoke of an exclusively humanitarian background to his trip.

"Otto Hirsch was in the Luhansk People's Republic on 16 and 17 May and provided material assistance to the residents of an apartment building in Alchevsk, into which a drone of the Ukrainian armed forces crashed in March," Russia's embassy in Vienna stated on social networks on Sunday evening.

Praise from Russia
At the same time, the "humanitarian activities" of the Austrian citizen were praised, who, according to the embassy, has a warm relationship with Russia and, together with his wife Vera, has made a major contribution to restoring the infrastructure of Donbass since 2015.

At the same time, numerous state and state-affiliated media in Russia had reported on the entrepreneur's whereabouts - the well-known TV channel RT had sent a British war correspondent to the small Russian-controlled town of Sorynsk to interview Hirsch.

Focus on the school
The interview was about the fact that the Austrian, who was honored by the head of the Russian local government for his commitment, was involved in the reconstruction of a school here that had been damaged in 2015 as a result of the war. The school thanks the Russian Federation and the local government, as well as the couple Otto and Vera Hirsch, Rotary International, Diakonie Austria and the Russian embassy in Vienna on the plaques on display.

Visits to the areas of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russia without the permission of the Ukrainian state are illegal and a gross violation of Ukrainian sovereignty.

Wassyl Chymynez, der ukrainische Botschafter in Österreich

Ukrainian ambassador furious
Hirsch is fully in the service of Russian aggression, the consequences of which are murders, rapes, torture, the occupation of many territories and others, commented Ukrainian Ambassador Chymynez on the reports. Visits to the areas of Ukraine temporarily occupied by Russia without the permission of the Ukrainian state are illegal and a gross violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, the diplomat wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

Entrepreneur defends himself
"When children are in need, I march off. Regardless of any political stories," said Otto Hirsch, who works in the construction industry, in response to the Ukrainian accusations. He has been doing this for 35 years and has been involved in humanitarian work in Romania, during the war in the former Yugoslavia and in Afghanistan. In 2015, he was asked if he could help children in the Alchevsk region, Hirsch said. The entrepreneur explained that he was not aware that his repeated visits to the region without authorization from Kiev violated Ukrainian law. According to his own statements, he had always traveled to the region with a Russian visa.

When children are in need, I march off. Regardless of any political stories.

Otto Hirsch, Unternehmer aus Linz

"Political stories"
At the same time, the Upper Austrian contradicted the statement made by the EU-sanctioned newspaper Izvestia on Friday, according to which he is convinced of the correctness of Russia's foreign policy course and the historical affiliation of Crimea and Donbass to Russia. "I never said that in a statement," he said, explaining that he was neither on the Russian nor the Ukrainian side in this "political story". His only wish, and the wish of many of his interlocutors, was that the war would finally end.