Neutral Switzerland has turned down Denmark’s requests to approve the shipment of Swiss-made Mowag Piranha III 8×8 armored personnel carriers to Ukraine, Swiss broadcaster SRF reported on Wednesday.
The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), a Swiss government body in charge of arms exports, rejected the Danish request on the grounds of the country’s neutrality, which prohibits it from supplying arms to conflict zones.
According to Swiss law, the country can’t approve the exports of weapons if the nation they’re destined for is involved in an internal or international armed conflict.
Switzerland maintains the right to prevent hardware it produced from being supplied to Ukraine under the neutrality policy, which extends to military assistance to Ukraine in defending itself against the Russian invasion.
The Danish Ministry of Defence has declined to comment on the matter.
Last month, the Danish media reported that Denmark plans to donate 25 Piranha III personnel carriers to Ukraine.
Piranha is a family of wheeled armored personnel carriers developed by the Swiss company MOWAG. This is one of the most massive armored vehicle platforms in the world. The Danish army is currently being re-equipped with the Piranha V armored personnel carrier.
