Switzerland's government has voted against selling almost 100 aging tanks to fuel Ukraine's conflict with Russia.
The Federal Council, the seven-member cabinet representing each of the militarily-neutral Alpine nation's seven cantons, rejected the request from state-owned defence firm Ruag to re-export 96 mothballed Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks (MBTs) to Germany, where they would be refurbished and supplied to the Kiev regime.
"On 28 June, the Federal Council rejected a request from Ruag AG concerning the export of 96 Leopard 1A5 tanks destined for Ukraine as it is inconsistent with applicable law," the council said in a statement. "It has therefore given priority to Switzerland’s commitments as a neutral country and to the reliability of its application of the rule of law."
Switzerland has maintained a policy of neutrality for over five centuries amid countless European wars.
The 1960s-vintage Leopard 1 is the ancestor of Germany's newest Leopard 2 tanks. Built from the early 60s, it was designed with thinner armour than most late-Second World War tanks on the basis that modern anti-tank missiles could defeat any practical thickness of solid steel and mobility was the only hope for survival on the battlefield.
Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands have already committed to buying up around 110 Leopard 1s from private arms dealers as part of the West's unprecedentedly huge military aid to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, German arms giant Rheinmetall says it will not be able to deliver them until next year.
Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Portugal and Canada have also delivered or promised more than 80 Leopard 2s to Ukraine.
The Leopard 2s, which sport much thicker composite armour and a larger-calibre gun, have already made a disappointing debut in the Ukraine 'counteroffensive' on the southern front in the Zaporozhye and Donetsk People's Republic regions.
At a meeting of the Russian National Security Council with President Vladimir Putin on Monday, council secretary Nikolai Patrushev said "13 Western tanks" had been destroyed so far in the Ukrainian offensive that month along with 233 of Kiev's existing Soviet-era models and 595 other armoured vehicles.
The UK has supplied 14 of its Challenger 2 MBTs to Ukraine — along with depleted uranium armour-piercing munitions — while the US is delivering 31 of its M1 Abrams tanks.