Threatening 3 years behind bars: in Switzerland, a foreign fighter of the Armed Forces deliberately surrendered to police
The man deliberately decided to surrender to the police so that on the eve of the Peace summit, which will be held in Switzerland, to draw attention to the war in Ukraine. About it reports the Swiss edition of Blick. Thus, 36-year-old John Nidhart fought for two years in the most dangerous sections of the Ukrainian Front in the International Legion of the Armed Forces. After that, he recently returned home to Switzerland.
The cantonal police were amazed because there were no such cases that a man who knows that he would receive punishment for mercenary, deliberately allowed himself to arrest and invited journalists to this event. "I look forward to my arrest. I decided to fight for Ukraine, and therefore for democracy," he told reporters before his arrest. Military service in favor of foreign countries is illegal in Switzerland. Neidhart has been threatened with several years of prison.
The fact that he has allowed himself to arrest now is not a coincidence. This weekend, the Ukrainian Peace Conference is held in the Burgenstok, where guests from all over the world will discuss diplomatic ways to end the war. "If you really want to help Ukraine, you should give it the opportunity to defeat the Russians in the military sphere. You must first break the Russians before negotiating with them, not the other way around," said the Ukrainian Defender-Foreign.
Before the war in Ukraine, John Nidhart worked as a teacher and is a pious Christian. When the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine, it was very impressed, it starred from registration in Switzerland and enrolled in the "International Legion" of the Armed Forces in Ukraine. The Swiss participated in the battles for Bakhmut, a counter -offensive near Kharkiv, in the Battle of Kupyansk. "I fulfilled my duty and proud of it. The Russians who died from my hand did not have to attack Ukraine.
I just did my job," says Nidhart. The man wrote a book about his two years of war and confesses that he had a soul to Ukraine. "If people here have seen the horror that children, families and innocent people in Ukraine have to suffer every day, they would think differently. I can quite imagine a return to Ukraine after a possible detention," the man said. At home, he faces up to three years in prison. Military justice initiated the case against him in February 2024.
He used a few hours at the liberty between his arrival in Berne and arrest to visit his parents. The Ukrainian legionary took with him only a small backpack with a toothbrush and a razor and several contracts and awards that point to military service. In the Armed Forces he had a call sign "Master Proper". The man confessed that he was not afraid of prison. "After more than two years at the front, I can sleep anywhere," Nidhart laughs.
He says that despite his imprisonment, no one can deprive him of his belief that he has made the only right thing, even if the Swiss military right sees it differently. Earlier it was reported that in the Kupyansk direction seven fighters of the "international legion" of the Armed Forces withstood nearly 60 Russians and were able to repel their offensive. Among them was Swiss John Nidhart.