Maja Riniker, president of the Swiss House of Representatives, said she had to spend two hours in a bunker during her trip to Ukraine.
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Maja Riniker, president of the Swiss House of Representatives, said she had to spend two hours in a bunker during her trip to Ukraine because of Russian drone attacks.
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The alert occurred while she was asleep on Friday at 1:30am.
Riniker was in the town of Vinnytsia, in the centre of the country, on the last leg of her three-day visit to Ukraine, she explained in an interview broadcast by the newspapers of the CH Media group. Parliamentarian Laurent Wehrli, chair of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Policy Committee, also took part in the trip.
Ukraine suffered another major Russian air attack on Thursday night, killing two people and injuring 22 others, according to emergency services.
In a sign of the recent intensification of Russian strikes in Ukraine, a UN mission announced on Thursday that in June alone it had counted the highest number of civilian deaths (232) and injuries (1,343) in three years, in a war that has already claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides, including many Ukrainian civilians.
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Riniker says, however, that she always felt safe during her trip, as most of the meetings take place two floors underground. She points out that this situation has been going on for almost four years for the civilian population. “It’s an enormous burden,” she says.
Help appreciated
During her trip, Riniker met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and members of the Ukrainian parliament. She also visited aid projects financed by Switzerland, particularly in the Kharkiv region. Swiss aid is highly visible and appreciated on the ground, she said. “The situation is disastrous, but there is a lot of strength. It has touched me deeply”.
Wehrli, interviewed in Friday’s edition of Le Temps, agreed. “Our Ukrainian parliamentary colleagues are sensitive to the fact that Swiss decisions are not just political declarations. Once aid has been approved in Bern, Ukrainian reconstruction projects can be financed immediately.
Switzerland’s position on arms deliveries was also discussed, Riniker said. Each time she briefly explained Switzerland’s concept of neutrality, which was accepted by the Ukrainian side, she said.
Given the uncertain support of the United States and the intense Russian bombardment, “the Ukrainians want Switzerland to deliver weapons”, Wehrli explained. “We have reiterated that our neutrality is not synonymous with inaction” and that “we want to help without compromising neutrality”, he added.
Translated from French by DeepL/ts
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