Support The Moscow Times!

Ukraine Greets Swiss Leader With Wrong Flag

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk (right) shakes hands with Swiss President Didier Burkhalter during a meeting in Kiev April 14, 2014.

A meeting between the leaders of Ukraine and Switzerland got off to an awkward start on Monday when the former greeted the latter with a Danish flag, not realizing the mistake.

Swiss President Didier Burkhalter, however, seemed remarkably unfazed by the goof and politely pointed it out to his Ukrainian counterpart, the Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten reported.

The Swiss and Danish national flags are very similar in design, as they both feature a white cross upon a red background. But only on the Danish flag does the cross extend to the edges of the banner.

Burkhalter is the current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and arrived in Kiev for a round of talks with Ukraine's interim prime minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk, to focus on mitigating rising tensions with Russia.

Last month the OSCE approved a mandate to send up to 500 observers to nearly a dozen Ukrainian regions in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Read more