Neutral Switzerland finds out how its armoured vehicles ended up in Ukraine
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Switzerland (SECO) established that Eagle I armoured vehicles ended up in Ukraine due to the actions of a German company, which handed them over to Ukraine without the approval of the Swiss authorities.
Source: European Pravda, referring to the Federal Council of Switzerland
Details: At the end of March 2023, several media outlets reported that an Eagle I armoured vehicle manufactured by the Swiss company General Dynamics European Land Systems, Mowag, was spotted in Ukrainian frontline cities. The Swiss authorities launched an investigation.
It turned out that in the 1990s, 36 Eagle I vehicles were exported from Switzerland to Denmark, and in 2013, Denmark with the agreement of Switzerland, handed 27 of these vehicles over to a private German company.
"This company made a commitment in a declaration about non-export not to hand 27 Eagle I vehicles to their parties abroad without the written agreement of Switzerland," the Swiss authorities noted.
Yet 11 such armoured vehicles have been re-exported to Ukraine with the approval of German export control bodies. It happened because the new head of the company decided that the declaration about non-re-export does not concern this equipment as protective cases and armoured windows have been removed from it.
"Since the declaration about non-export was violated not by the German government but by a former head of a private company, he is responsible for the consequences of this act," SECO concluded.
In connection with this, a German company, the name of which has not been disclosed, will no longer be permitted to export military equipment from Switzerland "due to a high risk of sending this equipment to an unwanted end recipient".
Switzerland’s neutrality does not allow supplying armament directly to the combat action areas. This rule is valid even if a country buys weapons from Switzerland: buyers must sign the so-called non-export declaration. Earlier, the upper chamber of the Swiss Parliament adopted the amendment that will allow the re-export of weapons to Ukraine.
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