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UKRAINE

Switzerland agrees to send Ukraine dozens of… old trams

Switzerland as a neutral country will not send arms to Ukraine, but its government said on Friday that dozens of retired trams from Bern and Zurich would be sent to the war-torn country.

Switzerland agrees to send Ukraine dozens of... old trams
Two trams run in the center of Bern, Switzerland 02 November, 2005. AFP PHOTO FABRICE COFFRINI (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

Eleven trams will be sent to the major western city of Lviv, which has seen its population swell with people fleeing the conflict zones in the south and east, the government said in a statement.

The central city of Vinnytsia will also receive trams, which are likewise in “perfect working order”.

“The vehicles are in good condition and will still be able to circulate for 10 to 12 years in Ukraine,” the statement said, adding that the first trams would be delivered in the third quarter of this year.

“Many people took refuge in Lviv following the Russian offensive, and many businesses were also relocated there, confronting the city with a significant population growth,” the statement said.

“Road traffic has increased accordingly, which is why the additional trams are very welcome.”

Switzerland is covering the cost of getting the trams to Lviv and training workers for maintaining them, plus the construction of a new tram line to a hospital.

Retired Zurich trams were first sent to Vinnytsia between 2007 and 2011, with more delivered under a 2021 deal. In a new agreement, 31 more trams are being sent from Switzerland’s financial capital.

Besides the Zurich trams in Vinnytsia, old trams from Bern are still in operation in Romania and former Basel trams are in service in Belgrade.

Switzerland’s long-standing position is one of well-armed military neutrality.

Though it has matched the European Union’s economic sanctions on Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has refused to send armaments or allow countries that hold Swiss-made weaponry to re-export it to Ukraine.

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UKRAINE

Swiss pull out the stops for Ukraine summit security

Switzerland is undertaking a major security operation around this weekend's summit on Ukraine, aiming to ward off not only physical threats but also cyberattacks and misinformation.

Swiss pull out the stops for Ukraine summit security

With dozens of heads of state and government flying in for the gathering at the swanky Burgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne, up to 4,000 troops are being deployed and a ring of steel has been put in place.

Around 6.5 kilometres of fencing and eight kilometres of barbed wire is going up, while the valley behind the exclusive hotel complex has been turned into a temporary military heliport.

“An event on this scale requires comprehensive protective measures,” Swiss President Viola Amherd said ahead of the summit.

High on a mountain ridge, surrounded by water on three sides, the Burgenstock is relatively straightforward to seal off.

More than 400 local residents with homes and farms beyond the checkpoint need a special pass to access the “red zone”.

Despite the event’s international importance, security responsibility falls to the tiny rural canton of Nidwalden.

The fifth-smallest of Switzerland’s 26 cantons in terms of both size and population, Nidwalden has just 45,000 residents.

Mud and helicopters 

The military will protect infrastructure, provide air transport and reconnaissance, conduct surveillance and interventions on the lake, and offer logistics and command support.

Soldiers have for days been taking position on the winding turns on the road up to the Burgenstock.
Overlooked by cattle with their cowbells clanging, the heliport was built with metal trackway on a squelching field.

Big enough to accommodate five helicopters, it is surrounded by a double layer of steel fencing and barbed wire.

“The army has the ability to set up a temporary take-off and landing zone anywhere in the country,” said Major General Daniel Keller, commander of the Swiss army’s Territorial Division 2, which encompasses Nidwalden.

“The foreign ministry decides which people fly from here and to here. The army provides the infrastructure,” he told reporters this week.

He said the armed forces were accustomed to maintaining air sovereignty.

“Federal law clearly alludes to the possibility of shooting down an aircraft,” he said, while remaining tight-lipped on potential threats such as drones.

“I am tense but I’m confident we can master this.”

The Swiss intelligence services will also work to identify and prevent threats.

Mindful of potential nuclear, biological and chemical threats, specialists will intensify the monitoring of radioactive emission levels in the area, authorities said.

Cyberattacks, ‘extreme’ misinformation 

Besides potential physical threats, Switzerland is also dealing with attacks in cyberspace and a deluge of misinformation surrounding the event.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, is not attending the summit.

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said there was “an obvious interest in disturbing the smooth running of the conference”.

He said there had been an increase in misinformation, including “hysterical broadcasts or offensive broadcasts, even as far as fake news”.

Amherd said the misinformation was “so extreme it’s clear that very little of this information is in line with reality”.

A first wave of distributed denial-of-service attacks on government websites and organisations involved in the summit began on Thursday.

DDoS attacks make websites or network resources unavailable by flooding them with malicious traffic.

“The attacks were expected and are presumed to be in connection with the summit. They resulted in minor outages,” said the National Cyber Security Centre.

It has set up an emergency centre for technical analyses and a communications platform for reporting “cyber-threat developments” during the summit.

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