Federal Council approves additional funding for demining in Ukraine
Published: Wednesday, Oct 9th 2024, 14:50
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The Swiss Confederation is supporting humanitarian demining in Ukraine with a further CHF 30 million. The money will go to the Geneva-based Fondation suisse de déminage (FSD) until 2027.
According to a press release issued on Wednesday, it is estimated that 139,000 square kilometers of ground in Ukraine are contaminated with mines and other explosive ordnance. In order to reduce the danger for the local population, the Federal Council approved CHF 100 million for humanitarian demining a year ago, from 2024 to 2027.
The national government now wants to provide more support for FSD's work on the ground. It has therefore approved CHF 30 million for one of the foundation's projects. How the funds will be used will be presented at the Ukraine Mine Action Conference on October 17 and 18 in Lausanne.
President Viola Amherd and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis will represent Switzerland at this conference. It will be held jointly with Ukraine.
Around 50 countries as well as international and regional organizations and representatives from NGOs, academia and the private sector will be in attendance. The theme of the conference is the importance of demining as a central component of social and economic reconstruction in the war-ravaged country.
The FSD itself was also a victim of an attack in the city of Kharkiv last July. An office building used by its employees was severely damaged by a rocket; no one was injured. In the summer, 320 people were working for FSD in Kharkiv, and over 600 people in Ukraine as a whole.
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