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Switzerland to offer Ukraine de-mining training

Landmine lies in long grass
Even after the war has ended, Ukraine will still face the problem of clearing landmines. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

The Swiss army has pledged to train Ukrainian civilians to remove landmines, cluster munitions and explosives in the war-torn country.

Swiss military experts regularly hold such training exercises together with the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) under the auspices of NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme.

Several experts from Ukraine will now join this course with travel and accommodation costs being covered by Switzerland.

By the middle of May more than 80,000 mines and explosive devices have already been found and rendered safe in Ukraine with support from GICHD

The remaining devices “will take years to remove, hindering reconstruction efforts and making it unsafe for people to return to their previous daily lives,” GICHD has saidExternal link.

On Monday, the Swiss army said it would help Ukraine with this dangerous task. “With this contribution, clearance work in humanitarian demining in Ukraine should be carried out more safely, efficiently and effectively,” read a government press statementExternal link.

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