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Free transport and calls: How Swiss companies are helping Ukrainians

Swiss companies and organisations a range of changes to help benefit Ukrainian citizens. Here's how.

Published: 1 March 2022 09:54 CET
Free transport and calls: How Swiss companies are helping Ukrainians
Swiss Federal Railways will offer a free ride to Ukrainian refugees. Photo by Kajetan Sumila on Unsplash

Several companies and organisations have announced policy changes in order to help people impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Telecommunications companies Salt, Swisscom and Sunrise UPC each announced they are waiving the costs of calls to and from Ukraine on its network.

“Sunrise UPC’s thoughts are with the Ukrainian people and all those affected”, the company said in a press release.

“In view of this situation, Sunrise UPC will waive in a first step the costs for international mobile calls and fix net calls from Switzerland to Ukraine and from Ukraine to Switzerland with immediate effect and until further notice for residential customers. Roaming calls within the Ukraine and calls from the Ukraine to Switzerland will not be charged”.

The other networks have taken similar steps. 

Sunrise and Swisscom also announced it is stopping the distribution of the TV channels of RT (RussiaToday), a state-controlled television network.

READ MORE: How Switzerland reacted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

What about the railways?

Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) are offering free long-distance train journeys to Ukrainian refugees.

SBB will allow people who have fled Ukraine to travel from the border to a certain destination in Switzerland or to cross the country by train.

The company said this move is in line with the decision of the Federal Council to imposing sanctions on Russia, and in agreement with the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). 

READ MORE: Switzerland to impose sanctions on Russia

The country could take in up to 2,000 Ukrainian refugees, “depending on the evolution of the conflict”, according to SEM.

“Switzerland has the will to show solidarity. An emergency plan is available in the event of major migratory movements”, it added.

Similar announcements have been made by public transport networks in Austria, Germany and Poland, among other countries. 

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UKRAINE

Switzerland to host Ukraine peace conference without Russian involvement

The Swiss government on Wednesday announced that it would host a high-level peace conference for Ukraine in mid-June, but said Russia would not attend.

Published: 10 April 2024 17:06 CEST
Switzerland to host Ukraine peace conference without Russian involvement

The conference will take place at the luxury Burgenstock resort near the central city of Luzern on June 15th -16th and would be hosted by Swiss President Viola Amherd.

“This is a first step in a process towards a lasting peace,” she told reporters in Bern.

Russia quickly slammed the planned conference and Amherd acknowledged that “we will not sign a peace plan at this conference”, but said she hoped “there will be a second conference”.

“We hope to start the process.”

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and is putting Ukrainian forces under new pressure, condemned the event as being part of a scheme by US President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party ahead of this year’s presidential election.

“American Democrats, who need photos and videos of events that supposedly indicate their project ‘Ukraine’ is still afloat, are behind this,” the state-run TASS news agency quoted foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.

Switzerland hopes to get Russia into later talks.

The government said in January, during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that it wanted to organise a peace conference this year.

‘Support for peace’

The government said in a statement Wednesday that it “took note of the results of the exploratory phase of the high-level conference on peace in Ukraine”.

It determined that “there is currently sufficient international support for a high-level conference to launch the peace process.”

In January, Zelensky spoke of a “summit” without any Russian participation.

But traditionally neutral Switzerland wants to find a way to bring the Kremlin into the talks, and has been battling to attract China and other emerging powers.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis also tried to woo Moscow, meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York in January.

Russia, angered by the Swiss decision to follow the neighbouring European Union in imposing sanctions, has charged the country can no longer be considered neutral.

On Wednesday, Cassis acknowledged Russia’s absence from the table but stressed that the aim was to include Moscow in future talks.

“A peace process cannot happen without Russia, even though it will not be there during the first meeting,” he said.

Since deciding that it wanted to host a conference, the Swiss government said it had been “in direct contact with numerous states to explore options for initiating a peace process”.

Switzerland had held talks with G7 member states, the EU and representatives of the Global South, including China, India, South Africa and Brazil, it said.

Bern did not disclose who would be attending, but Swiss media reports said US President Joe Biden would be on the list.

The conference will be aimed at establishing “a forum for a high-level dialogue on ways to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine in accordance with international law and the UN Charter,” the government said.

“It aims to create a common understanding of a framework favourable to this objective and a concrete roadmap for Russia’s participation in the peace process.”

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