Switzerland joins register for war damage in Ukraine

Firefighters work at the site of a missile strike in Kyiv on Wednesday Keystone / Vadym Sarakhan

Switzerland will join the planned register of war damage in Ukraine. The government has decided to join the database launched by the Council of Europe in May for evidence and information on damage caused by the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

Joining underscores Switzerland’s support for the people affected by the war and for Ukraine’s political reconstruction process, the government said on Wednesday. Thirty-seven members of the Council of Europe have joined the damage register so far, plus Canada, the US, Japan and the EU.

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The damage register is intended to collect information as well as evidence on damage, losses and injuries suffered by persons, entities or the Ukrainian state as a result of Russian attacks since the invasion on February 24, 2022. The register is intended to serve as a basis for later court proceedings and possible reparation payments by Russia to Ukraine.

The register is initially intended to last for three years. It is to be based in The Hague in the Netherlands.

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Interior Minister Alain Berset, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, signed a declaration for the register of damages at the Council of Europe summit in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik in mid-May. The database was the first step towards a discussion on accountability in the war, Berset told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA at the time. Switzerland had always shown solidarity with Ukraine, he said, because it was frightening what was happening there.

Estimates of the damage caused by the war and the amount needed for reconstruction in Ukraine vary widely, from $350 billion (CHF308 billion) to over $1,000 billion. The Council of Europe, Europe’s leading human rights organisation, took up a concern of the United Nations in November with the damage register.

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