The Swiss Senate Commission on Security Policy (CPS-E) calls on the government to launch a large-scale demining program in Ukraine with the participation of local companies, commission chairwoman Andrea Gmur said.
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“The goal of this project is to do everything possible to help Ukraine in demining, but with the participation of Swiss companies that have the competence to do this. It is this last point that is new in our position,” she said.
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Gmur added that the amount of this demining project has not yet been determined, but that it will be included in the general humanitarian assistance that Switzerland provides to Ukraine within the framework of its neutrality.
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In a statement published on the parliament’s website, the commission clarifies that it would like the Swiss Foundation for Demining (FSD), the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining (CIDHG) and the Army Demining Competence Center (NBC-DEMUNEX) to participate in the project.
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In December, Swiss deputies voted in favor of such a project, without specifying that Swiss companies should participate in it in the first place. A vote on this bill in the Senate is scheduled for the spring session. In November, Swiss President Alain Berset announced his intention to provide Ukraine with more than $110 million in assistance aimed at humanitarian demining.
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Earlier, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal stated that the country had agreed to raise another $73 million for demining the territories. The Prime Minister also stated that, according to the World Bank, the full range of humanitarian demining work in the country will cost $37.4 billion. Requirements for 2023 alone reached more than $397 million.
