Protesters have taken to the streets in Austria and Germany calling for an end to the protracted war in Ukraine that completed one year recently amid a growing anti-war chorus in Europe.
People marched in Vienna to protest the deliveries of heavy weaponry to Ukraine by Western countries and to denounce the US-led NATO military alliance's involvement in the devastating war.
They also called for the neutrality of Austria, carrying banners and chanting slogans against the Western military alliance and the European Union's arms deliveries to Kiev.
"Austria is neutral and we want to stay neutral because we don't want to be involved in any war," Brigitte Fink, a Vienna resident, was quoted as saying by CCTV.
"But being a part of the European Union, we are forced to support whatever European Union decides. So if they decide to deliver weapons, we deliver weapons. And we think delivering weapons can never bring peace."
The weapon deliveries to Ukraine continue as the West refuses to pay heed to Russia's warnings that it will only prolong the simmering conflict.
Russia launched what it calls the "special military operation" in Ukraine in February 2022, with NATO's eastward expansion blamed for the war.
Moscow views the alliance’s efforts to make Ukraine a member and to deploy missiles close to its borders as a direct threat to Russian territory.
"We have enough escalation and we also have to say how many wars Americans (are) responsible for? So all the war is starting with the Americans because it's a business for them. Selling weapons is a business," Fink said.
A similar demonstration was taken out in Germany on Sunday, with anti-war protesters marching through the streets of Chemnitz City, and calling for a peaceful end to the deadly conflict in Ukraine.
The march coincided with the Chemnitz Peace Day that commemorates the victims of the 1945 Allied bombing raids on the city.