The Government of Switzerland will allocate CHF 30 million (about $34.7 million) to support the work of the Geneva-based Swiss Foundation for Demining (Fondation Suisse De Déminage, FSD) in Ukraine until 2027, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis has said Thursday.

"These are frontline players. 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 told a press conference in Lausanne during the second annual Ukraine Mine Action Conference (UMAC-2024).

Cassis noted that with this assistance, FSD will be more confident in its work because it knows that Ukraine's strategic mine action plan will be funded in the long term and therefore it can undertake commitments.

The 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 allocated CHF 100 million to Ukraine for demining for four years.

"The aim of the conference, designed 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 provide support, not only moral but also financial and strategic, for reconstruction, which is not a simple task," he said.

The minister also noted that the outcome of the conference will be a call to action.

"Because 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," he said.

According to Cassis, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian aggression, Switzerland has allocated about CHF 3.7 billion to Ukraine, most of which is intended for the 65,000 Ukrainian refugees the country has hosted.

The minister said that the Swiss Government has decided to stay committed to Ukraine for the next twelve years and expects that the Swiss parliament will reconsider its decision and by the end of this year approve the allocation of CHF 1.5bn over the next four years for a program for Ukraine that includes humanitarian demining as well as reconstruction, digitalization, decentralization and other projects.

Cassis also said that a spending program for these funds is being prepared, which will give an overall picture of what Switzerland wants to do over the next four years.

"Some things still have to be approved by parliament. Discussions are ongoing. I am sure that by the end of the year we will have positive decisions to maintain our support for Ukraine," he concluded.