Switzerland is not neutral in terms of the country’s values and interests against the backdrop of the situation in Ukraine and unambiguously supports Kyiv’s position. About this on November 23 in an interview with the Swiss television and radio company RTS Ambassador of Bern in Kyiv Claude Wilde.
“In such a scenario that we are experiencing in Ukraine, we are not neutral,” he explained, answering a question from journalists about how the country’s policy of neutrality is combined with the Ukrainian conflict.
The high-ranking diplomat noted that Switzerland supports the Ukrainian side.
“We are clearly for the observance of international law, and this law was violated by Russia in Ukraine. What Ukraine is doing is legal, what Russia is doing is illegal and illegitimate,” he shared his opinion.
Speaking about neutrality, the ambassador noted that military neutrality means something else.
“We do not enter into a military alliance and do not export weapons to the conflict zone, even to support the victim. This is neutrality,” concluded Wild.
Earlier, on November 14, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said that the country would not supply weapons to Ukraine. Switzerland did not export weapons either during the First or even during the Second World War, the politician recalled.
Prior to that, on November 7, it was reported that the issue of arms supplies to Ukraine provoked a split in the four main parties in Switzerland. The views of political forces on the issue of assistance to Kyiv differ.
Prior to this, in August, Celine Amodru, a member of the National Council of the Swiss Federal Assembly, said that the country had effectively abandoned its neutral status after joining the anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the West.
In April, the Sonntags Zeitung reported that Switzerland had banned Germany from re-exporting to Ukraine ammunition used in the German Marder-type infantry fighting vehicles. Neutrality was also cited as a reason for this.
Western countries began to actively arm Ukraine against the backdrop of a military operation carried out by Moscow since February 24 to protect Donbass, against which Kyiv has been conducting military operations since 2014.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
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