Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga, this Tuesday, July 21, supported the peace process in eastern Ukraine during a visit to Kiev, the first at such a level in Ukrainian-Swiss relations. " We support a peaceful solution in eastern Ukraine, this is a priority of our peace policy ," Sommaruga said during a joint press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.
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The Swiss president arrived in Ukraine on Monday evening for a three-day visit. The two heads of state are due to travel together on Wednesday to Donbass, the eastern region where a war broke out in 2014. " Switzerland continues its humanitarian aid to the east " of Ukraine, with which it established diplomatic relations upon independence in 1991, Ms. Sommaruga said in particular during her press conference.
" Switzerland welcomes the release of prisoners in recent months ", an allusion to the detainees exchanged between Kiev and the pro-Russian separatists, she continued. The two presidents signed several documents on bilateral collaboration, including a cooperation agreement until 2023 aimed at supporting the reform process in Ukraine.
The war in the east of that country has claimed more than 13,000 lives and displaced around 1.5 million people in six years. Peace accords signed in Minsk in 2015 greatly reduced the violence, but the political settlement has stalled. Kiev and the West accuse Russia of militarily supporting the rebels, which Moscow denies.