Putin reaffirms annexations of four regions – DW – 09/30/2023

Switzerland plans to finance a quarter of the mine clearance operations needed in Ukraine, according to Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.

Switzerland has not provided weapons to Ukraine, citing its law of neutrality.

“In the field of humanitarian demining, we are generous,” Cassis said. “Only military aid is excluded because of neutrality.”

Of the $400 million (€378 million) Kyiv would need for mine clearance, Washington has already pledged half, according to Cassis. Switzerland plans to provide $100 million, the minister said.

He said an area of Ukraine four times the size of Switzerland is mined.

The Swiss parliament must still approve the step.

Switzerland helped train mine clearance specialists in Ukraine, providing $16.6 million in 2022 and 2023.

But large-scale mining operations can only be launched once hostilities cease, Foundation for Mine Action director Hansjörg Eberle was cited by the German DPA news agency as saying. 

Authorities in the western Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia have ordered a partial evacuation, saying that an infrastructure site had been struck.

“At this time there is no need for a general evacuation, apart from the immediate area around the site of the hit,” Vasyl Polischuk, the head of administration for the town of Kalynivka, said.

Regional Governor Serhiy Borzov also reported the hit on an unspecified infrastructure strike.

Neither report specified what target had been struck or what weapon had been used.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that residents of Russia-held regions in southern and eastern Ukraine expressed their desire to be part of Russia in recent local elections.

Moscow announced that it had annexed the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions on September 30, 2022, after what was denounced by Kyiv and Western countries as “sham” and meaningless referendums conducted illegally and with massive coercion of voters.

Putin argues that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine saved people from nationalist leaders in Kyiv who unleashed a “full-scale civil war.” 

Russia launched a full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022. Russian forces do not entirely control any of the regions Putin claims were annexed and part of Russia. 

In June, Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive to retake southern and eastern areas held by Moscow.

sdi/sms (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)