Switzerland bars exports to Polish firm after Swiss-made ammunition ends up in Ukraine

abcnews.go.com:

The Swiss government says it is barring exports to a Polish military hardware supplier after concluding that some 645,000 rounds of Swiss-made small-caliber ammunition ended up in Ukraine in violation of Swiss law

GENEVA — The Swiss government said Friday it is barring exports to a Polish military hardware supplier after concluding that some 645,000 rounds of Swiss-made small-caliber ammunition ended up in Ukraine in violation of Swiss law.

The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs said exports to the Polish company will be barred because “the risk of diversion to Ukraine is assessed as being too high.”

Switzerland has long touted its neutrality in world affairs, and Swiss law bans exports of Swiss-owned or Swiss-made military hardware to countries in conflict.

However the Swiss government has backed European Union economic sanctions against Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The secretariat opened an investigation after a report by U.S.-based news outlet Defense One last November indicated a Ukrainian company had taken receipt of 645,000 rifle cartridges of armor-piercing rounds made by SwissP Defense and delivered by a Polish importer, UMO.

“The investigation showed that the Swiss manufacturer and the Polish company had signed a reseller agreement stating that the Polish company was entitled to resell the ammunition only in Poland,” the secretariat, known as SECO, said in an email to The Associated Press.

The probe concluded that the Polish company “did not honor the contractual commitments it made to the Swiss manufacturer and the ammunition ended up in Ukraine.”

SwissP Defence said in an email “we always comply with the regulations” in Switzerland, and declined to disclose information about