Austria’s finance Minister delivered a sobering speech to the Austrian Parliament while presenting the draft budget Wednesday. In it he said Austria is presently facing the worst financial crisis since World War II.

Finance Minister Magnus Brunner said the crisis is being triggered by the EU sanctions levied against Russia, and that the path of the crisis is impossible to predict, as not only is it impossible to know when the nation might emerge from the threat, but that even if it did it emerge, would be impossible to predict if the nation might enter another crisis in the near future due to a reemergence of the same conditions.

Brunner noted that as Austrian households were being hit hard economically by the side effects of the Russian sanctions, the nation was trapped by the fact that even if the government undertook the “emotionally understandable” step of lifting the sanctions, there is no guarantee Russia will normalize relations, and return to the trade relationship of the past.

Austria has been a minority voice opposing the sanctions against Moscow, due to its heavy dependence on cheaply imported Russian oil and gas. The nation introduced a plan in March to reduce its dependence on Russian gas by two-thirds by the end of 2022, as a first step in part of a broader plan to become totally independent from all Russian fuel by “well before 2030.”

The minister’s warning comes after the Federation of Austrian Industries issued a warning that by suspending Russian gas supplies, the government would be dealing a “serious blow” to the Austrian people’s welfare, and threatening over 300,000 jobs. The federation noted that the “blue fuel” was vital to nearly every job in the entire food industry.

Even beyond all of that, inflation is continuing to soar in the face of the rising fuel costs, as the nation is deprived of cheap Russian supplies. The government has tried to address this through increasing social benefits, however that too comes with economic effects which can exacerbate the underlying inflation.