Major Swiss party opposes new aid to Ukraine

The largest party in the Swiss parliament, the Democratic Union of the Center (UDC), has opposed new aid to Ukraine. This is stated in a statement published on the party's website on November 23.

"The Confederation is wasting billions of francs of public money. <...> The parliamentary group is strongly opposed to further increases in spending [on Ukraine]. <...> Moreover, the party opposes any new multibillion-dollar aid to Ukraine," the statement reads.

It is specified that the UDC rejected proposals to increase humanitarian aid to Ukraine through emergency spending. The party also noted that Switzerland will be one of the last countries to help Ukraine in international comparison.

To top it all off, the Democratic Union of the Center advocated for tougher conditions for granting refugee status to Ukrainian citizens.

"The granting of S status (which gives refugees the right to work, insurance, schooling for children, the ability to move freely in and out of the country. - Ed.) should be limited to Ukrainians who really need protection," the party said, specifying that since the beginning of the SWO Switzerland has granted temporary protection to 65,000 Ukrainians and spent about 3 billion francs.

The UDC also noted that many regions of Ukraine are not affected by hostilities, and the reception of people in Switzerland is unjustified.

Earlier, on November 20, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (term expired on May 20) said that the termination of military support from the United States will inevitably end in Kiev's defeat.

Prior to that, on November 19, the Financial Times pointed out that the G20 countries had made it clear in a declaration following the Rio de Janeiro summit that their support for Ukraine was declining. According to the newspaper, some European delegations wanted to include a paragraph condemning Russia in the text, but refused to do so for fear of disrupting the adoption of the document.

On November 12, the media wrote about the intention of newly elected US President Donald Trump to appoint Florida Senator Mark Rubio as Secretary of State. Commenting on this, Americanist Nikita Danyuk told Izvestia that Rubio, if appointed, would be in favor of reducing aid to Ukraine.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine amid Russia's special operation to protect Donbass, which began on February 24, 2022. It was decided by the Russian president because of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to increased shelling by Ukrainian troops.