The lower house of the Swiss parliament on Thursday rejected by a majority of votes the approval of the plan to support Ukraine for more than five billion euros over the next five to ten years.

 RTS writes about it.

 105 members of the National Assembly - primarily representatives of right-wing parties - voted against the plan, presented by the Swiss Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Ignazio Cassis, against 86 who supported it.

 The funds were planned to be used for humanitarian aid, civil protection and demining, as well as for "peace development" activities. However, several members of parliament said that many issues still need to be clarified regarding the restoration of Ukraine and international cooperation.

 The proposal was put forward by the chamber's foreign affairs committee back in March, whose representative, Nicholas Walder, explained that Switzerland's refusal of armed aid to Ukraine "should not release us from our solidarity efforts to support Ukraine."

 "Allocating 0.22% of GDP to aid this country, Switzerland is behind almost all European countries. Austria and Norway do much more in line with their economic strength. Even Poland spends 3.1% of its GDP on aid," Walder said.

 Earlier, Switzerland has already approved the provision of three packages of humanitarian aid to Ukraine for a total amount of more than 1.8 billion euros over the next six years.

 The blocking of aid was accepted by Swiss parliamentarians a week before President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address them via video link.