Switzerland Reopens Its Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine

In a statement issued on May 19, the Federal Council also stated that five employees of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) would return to Kyiv in the coming days, AtoZSerwisPlus.comreports.

Meanwhile, the decision is based on an analysis of the security situation in the Ukrainian capital.

“In light of this analysis, President of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis, also head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), decided to have Switzerland’s representation there reopened,” the statement reads.

According to the Council, Ambassador Claude Wild will be back during the first phase with a team of four transferable staff.

The Swiss Embassy will also continue to employ local Ukrainian staff.

“The physical presence of the Swiss ambassador and his team will facilitate contact with the Ukrainian authorities, which is also important given the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) to be held in Lugano on 4 and 5 July,” the statement also explains.

In the following weeks, the embassy team is set to deal with key issues regarding the reconstruction and development projects in the country, offering humanitarian aid as well as help for media coverage of the situation in Ukraine.

An assessment mission conducted by the FDFA Crisis Management Centre (KMZ) together with experts from the Department of Defence, Civil Defence and Sports (DDPS) has shown that the situation in Kyiv is now safe enough to allow the embassy to reopen, ??allowing FDFA Staff to be there in person without putting their lives and wellbeing at risk.

In addition, in the recent weeks, many representatives of other countries have begun to open their embassies. The embassies and consulates of over 40 countries are now again physically present in Kyiv.

For example, Denmark was the first Nordic country to open its embassy in Ukraine. According to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassy’s staff will handle political tasks related to the close Danish-Ukrainian relations from the Kyiv staff, including the money and assistance that the Danish government is willing to donate to the Ukrainians.

Previously, Italy has also decided to move its embassy to Kyiv.

Similar to Italy and Denmark, seeing the improvement of the security situation in Kyiv, Hungary and Spain, like other European Union countries, have decided to relocate their embassies to the Ukrainian capital from Lviv.