They prepare to fight to defend their country against the Russians. For weeks, President Putin has had soldiers and heavy artillery brought to the border with Ukraine. There are now over 100,000 soldiers on site. And the fear of invasion is growing day by day.
That is why the population in Ukraine is being given military training. Members of the Azov National Guard Regiment have given some residents basic training.
Among them Valentina Konstantinovska (79). She wants to know what to do in an emergency. A picture of her proves it. It shows her lying on the ground with a machine gun at the ready. Apparently she’s being shown how to aim and shoot properly.
Ukraine Ambassador Rybchenko: «When the Russians cross lines, it will be painful for them»(12:02)
No call to leave the country
It is unclear whether Putin is actually planning an attack on Ukraine. The West is preparing at least more for a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Switzerland is organizing the departure of other relatives of employees of the Swiss embassy in Kiev from Ukraine. The move affects people with children who are still in the country, as the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) announced on Monday. According to the communiqué, a large proportion of those accompanying embassy employees are already outside Ukraine.
Official Switzerland continues to refrain from calling on its citizens to leave Ukraine, as Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, among others, did at the weekend. Great Britain, Australia and the USA had previously announced that their citizens should leave the country.
Swiss embassy remains open
In this context, the FDFA wrote of an individual decision by Swiss nationals. According to the information, 257 Swiss people are currently living in Ukraine. Since Saturday, however, the foreign department has been advising against tourist and other non-urgent trips to Ukraine. It also points out possible problems when leaving Ukraine should airlines reduce or cancel their flights.
The Swiss embassy remains open. In tense times, it is particularly important that Swiss nationals can contact the embassy, wrote the FDFA.
“Hysteria has reached its peak”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz travels to Kiev on Monday and to Moscow on Tuesday. It’s about “exploring how we can secure peace in Europe,” he said.
US President Joe Biden warned Kremlin chief Putin in a phone call on Saturday of rapid and serious consequences for Russia in the event of an invasion, the White House said. US government circles said the phone call had not brought any “fundamental change”.
“The hysteria has reached its peak,” Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told journalists after the phone call. At the same time, he emphasized that “the presidents have agreed to continue contacts at all levels”.
In the past few days, the US government had repeatedly warned of an invasion that was possible “at any time”. The US media spoke of a possible major attack shortly after Scholz’s visit to Moscow. US forces sent 3,000 additional troops to Poland, relocated fighter jets from Germany to Romania and withdrew almost all remaining US troops from Ukraine.
Attack against Ukraine makes no sense
The top Swiss diplomat Thomas Greminger does not believe in an invasion, as he explained in an interview with the “NZZ”. The cost would be so high that even a minor attack on Ukraine would make no sense. In any case, he considers the Russian president to be a rationally thinking and acting president.
The greatest risk is a provocation, for example with a covert operation (false flag) on the contact line with Donbass. This is where the world needs to take a closer look, said Greminger.
If Russia’s demands were not met, there was a risk of losing face in front of the home crowd. But if Putin skilfully marketed everything that had come up on his negotiating table in the past few weeks, he could celebrate it as a success.
debate for years unsuccessful
Suddenly there was talk again about arms control, the prevention of incidents or more transparency in large-scale maneuvers. For years, unsuccessful attempts had been made to debate this within the framework of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). Now let it be on the table.
The 60-year-old diplomat Thomas Greminger has held various managerial positions in the FDFA. From 2010 he was Swiss ambassador to the OSCE, which he positioned as a mediator in the Ukraine crisis after the annexation of Crimea during the Swiss presidency. Greminger has been Director of the Geneva Center for Security since May 2021. (jmh/SDA/AFP)