New rules mandate buyers to guarantee solely domestic use or explicitly identify any third-party recipients.
Following a controversy involving the transfer of Swiss ammunition to Ukraine via a Polish intermediary, the Swiss government has implemented stricter regulations on arms exports to prevent weapons from reaching conflict zones.
The new rules, announced Monday on the Swiss parliament’s website, are a direct response to the discovery of approximately 645,000 rounds of small-caliber ammunition in Ukraine, a violation of Swiss neutrality laws. These regulations require buyers to provide written assurances of exclusive domestic use. Re-export is permissible only if all third-party countries are explicitly named in the agreement. This aims to enhance safeguards and mitigate the risk of unauthorized diversion.
The incident came to light last November when Defense One reported that hundreds of thousands of SwissP Defence-made armor-piercing cartridges reached Ukraine through UMO, a Polish firm. An investigation by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) revealed that, despite an agreement limiting resale to Poland, UMO breached this commitment.
Consequently, SECO banned further exports to UMO last month, citing an “excessively high risk of diversion to Ukraine.”
SwissP Defence affirmed its compliance with regulations but declined to elaborate on customer relations. Conversely, UMO maintained its exports adhered to Polish law, arguing Switzerland had “ceded control of the goods to Polish jurisdiction.”
Following its indefinite blacklisting by Bern, UMO published a statement on its website, expressing pride in its support for Kyiv.
Switzerland, upholding its long-standing neutrality policy and strict laws against exporting military equipment to conflict zones, remains committed to its neutral stance. This commitment coexists with Switzerland’s support for EU sanctions against Russia and its recent approval to participate in a NATO crisis-management exercise next spring.