Switzerland does not stop humanitarian aid to Ukraine despite worldwide drop

KYIV. 25 July (Interfax-Ukraine) – Switzerland maintains the level of its involvement in helping Ukraine in the field of humanitarian response, despite the global recession of donor support in the world, Head of the humanitarian aid department in Ukraine of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Serge Umov said.

"As for Switzerland, I am pleased to announce that we are not reducing our humanitarian commitments. Our assistance is not as large-scale as that provided by the United States and other European partners. But we are maintaining our involvement for at least the next few years. We do not plan to reduce our efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine," Umov said during the roundtable discussion titled "Humanitarian Activities in War: Protection of Personnel, Innovation and Impact on World Politics" at Interfax-Ukraine.

According to a representative of the Swiss agency, the current crisis opens up opportunities to rethink approaches to humanitarian response.

"We will need, and we are already doing so, to change some things in our approaches and the way we operate. Every crisis also opens up new opportunities," he added.

Umov named the localization of humanitarian assistance and supporting the capacity of Ukrainian organizations as one of the priority areas.