The Swiss government will provide 30 million Swiss francs (about $34.7 million) to support the work of the Geneva-based Fondation suisse de déminage (FSD) in Ukraine until 2027, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has said.
“These are players at the forefront. We need a strategy, but above all we need the men and women who do the work and the machines. I believe that with this contribution, the Swiss Foundation will be able to significantly expand its activities,” he said at a conference on Thursday in Lausanne at the Second Annual Ukraine Mine Action Conference (UMAC-2024).
Cassis noted that with this support, the FSD will be more confident in its work, as it knows that Ukraine’s strategic mine action plan will be funded in the long term and therefore it can commit to it.
The Foreign Minister noted that such international conferences often become a catalyst for government decisions to allocate support, and expressed hope that other countries would follow the example of Switzerland, which last year also allocated CHF100 million for demining to Ukraine over four years.
“The purpose of the conference, which aims to strengthen international cooperation and support for humanitarian assistance in Ukraine, is precisely to share knowledge and best practices at the technical level and at the same time at the political level to ensure support, not only moral but also financial and strategic, for the recovery, which is not an easy task,” said Cassis.
He noted that the conference will result in a call to action.
“We don’t need new rules, we don’t need papers, we need action. And it is on this word that we would like to focus the attention of all those present here today,” the Foreign Minister emphasized.
According to him, since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression, Switzerland has allocated about CHF3.7 billion to Ukraine, most of which is intended for 65 thousand Ukrainians who have been accepted by the country.
Cassis said that the Swiss government has decided to remain committed to Ukraine for the next 12 years, and expects that the country’s parliament will reconsider its decision and approve the allocation of CHF1.5 billion over the next four years for a program for Ukraine, which includes humanitarian demining, as well as recovery, digitalization, decentralization and other projects.
He added that a program for spending these funds is being prepared, which will provide a general picture of what Switzerland wants to do over the next four years.
“Some things still have to be approved by the parliament. Discussions are ongoing. I am confident that by the end of the year we will have positive decisions to maintain our support for Ukraine,” he concluded.
