Swiss President Ignazio Cassis visited Ukraine on October 20. He tweeted about it. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on Cassis's visit on his Telegram channel, saying that it testifies to the impossibility of maintaining neutrality "in the face of security challenges for the entire continent and humanity."
Cassis posted a photo and expressed support for Zelensky. According to him, they discussed assistance to Ukraine.
Zelensky, in turn, wrote that the main topic of the talks was the discussion of further cooperation in response to Russia's terror.
“Thank you for your principled condemnation of the criminal attempt to annex the territories of Ukraine and for Switzerland’s support of the EU sanctions packages!”
On October 19, Bild reported that German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier canceled his visit to Ukraine "for security reasons." He was supposed to arrive in Kyiv on October 20.
In August, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Switzerland could not represent the interests of Ukraine in Russia, since it had lost its neutral status. Before that, Switzerland imposed sanctions on 197 Russians and nine Russian companies, the list included businessmen Roman Abramovich, Andrei Melnichenko, Dmitry Pumpyansky and his son Alexander, Dmitry Mazepin and his son Nikita, Mikhail Poluboyarinov, as well as the CEO of Channel One Konstantin Ernst. All of them were banned from entering the country and their assets were frozen. In addition, in September the Swiss Federal Council stopped the simplified visa regime with Russia.
