A Russian-speaking passenger attacked a Ukrainian family on a Swiss train after hearing them speak Ukrainian. The October 13 incident has drawn over 1 million views online and prompted Ukraine's Foreign Ministry to demand a Swiss investigation.
The man is Aleksandrs Vabiks, a Russian-speaking Latvian citizen with a type B Swiss residence permit.
Olena Dudnyk was returning home around 7:00 p.m with her husband and their son, aged 1 year and 10 months, on a train from Interlaken to Spiez, she wrote on Instagram. The family sat opposite the man and his companion in the train car.
The conflict started when the man heard Dudnyk speaking Ukrainian with her husband. Her husband was born in Switzerland, holds Swiss citizenship, and understands Ukrainian because his parents are from Belarus.
Dudnyk filmed the confrontation and posted it on social media, writing that the video shows "all the threats, manipulation, and aggression directed at us."
Russian-speaking man threatens to kill
In the footage, the man curses aggressively in Russian, demands the family delete their recording, and shows obscene gestures.
From the dialogue it becomes clear that the father confronted the man as he began swearing after hearing them speak Ukrainian.
The man told them to apologize for threats he had allegedly received and questioned why the father wasn't "in the trenches." The family can be heard speaking calmly to him throughout the recording.
Vabiks escalated his own threats against the family, culminating in the statement "We're shooting people like you."
"Get the fk out of here! Get out with your family until I fking beat up your child!" he yelled, according to the video.
He also made explicit threats based on their Ukrainian identity:
"You're fking against the Russians. I'm a Russian man, we're fking killing you bitches. We will kill you all til the end, all of you!"
Vabiks also demanded to see the husband's Swiss passport while insisting on his own Swiss identity.
When Dudnyk continued filming, the attacker knocked her phone from her hands. Her husband pushed him away.
"Then there was physical violence, a fight, and a call to the police," Dudnyk wrote on Facebook.
Father physically defends dignity of his family while attacked
The video ends abruptly as the Russian-speaking man stands up and approaches, intending to strike.
Dudnyk later explained what happened:
"After he knocked the phone out of my hands, my husband pushed him away so that we could move with our child to another end of the train."
Her husband defended "the honor and dignity of our family and my native country," she wrote.
Train cameras captured the entire incident. Police were waiting for them on the platform after witnesses who saw the fight called authorities. The attacker tried to hide back in the train, but police detained him, Dudnyk wrote.
During the conversation with law enforcement present, the man demanded 10,000 Swiss francs from the family to not file criminal charges against them. He behaved arrogantly toward police officers and continued drinking alcohol, Dudnyk wrote. Police took everyone's documents and told them to wait while circumstances of the situation would be investigated.
The family's young son was very frightened. "We were shocked, especially our one-year-old was very frightened," the father told 20 Minuten.
Investigation is ongoing
Bern cantonal police confirmed the incident to 20 Minuten. No one required hospitalization. An investigation is ongoing, police said.
Police told the husband to wait for footage from train cameras, after which he would be fined for inflicting bodily harm on the Russian-speaking man during the confrontation.
Dudnyk shared that Swiss police are "reluctant to respond" and have not yet taken action. The family plans to appeal to prosecutors.
Women report previous threats from same man
Dudnyk wrote on Facebook that she wanted the situation to gain publicity and would "count on the Swiss police and authorities." Any Ukrainian family could find themselves in the same position, she noted.
She expressed particular concern for women with children forced to come to other countries during wartime without their protectors.
After the video circulated online, multiple people came forward saying they had encountered the same individual, Dudnyk told Hromadske. These were mostly women with children who reported threats of violence and sexual assault, she said.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Latvia implemented strict measures to reduce Russian cultural influence, including closing Russian schools, banning Russian state media, and tightening immigration laws.
These policies aimed at enhancing national security but increased suspicion toward Russian speakers, with many now viewed through a security lens as potential threats, deepening social and political tensions between Latvian and Russian-speaking communities.
"Hate speech and ethnic hatred," Ukrainian officials say
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhiy Tykhyi called the video "appalling" in an 16 October post on X.
He described it as evidence of "unacceptable hate speech and ethnic hatred." Ukraine has requested Swiss authorities investigate and hold those responsible accountable. Such behavior cannot be tolerated, he said.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Latvia implemented strict measures to reduce Russian cultural influence, including closing Russian schools, banning Russian state media, and tightening immigration laws.
These policies aimed at enhancing national security but increased suspicion toward Russian speakers, with many now viewed through a security lens as potential threats, deepening social and political tensions between Latvian and Russian-speaking communities.
