Swiss parliamentary committee backs $5.5 billion aid plan for Ukraine

A Swiss parliamentary committee late on Thursday voted to back a 5 billion Swiss franc (US$5.5 billion) aid contribution for Ukraine as part of a broader package aimed at improving neutral Switzerland's defence capabilities.

Supported by lawmakers from centre-left and centre-right parties, the security committee of the upper house of parliament approved the package to provide 10.1 billion francs in additional funds for the army, along with the Ukraine sum.

The plan, which still faces a series of parliamentary hurdles before it can become law, passed by 8 votes to 5, with right-wing parties opposing the deal.

In a statement, parliament said the multi-billion dollar package was conceived as an extraordinary contribution toward the security of Switzerland and "peace in Europe" because of the Russia-ukraine war.

Switzerland is under pressure from Western allies to do more to help Ukraine even as right-wing nationalists in parliament press for the country to remain strictly neutral.

The Ukraine part of the package intends to support the reconstruction and repair of day-to-day infrastructure necessary for life and survival in Ukraine, parliament said.

The committee voted through the plan less than two months before Switzerland is due to host a high-level international conference aimed at helping to bring peace to Ukraine.

In another move, the United States hopes decisions by it and allied countries to send long-range missiles to Ukraine may encourage similar action by Germany, which has so far refused to provide its Taurus missiles, a US official said on Thursday.

Washington confirmed the day before that it had sent Ukraine a variant of the ATACMS missile with a range of 300 kilometres, while France and Britain have respectively supplied SCALP and Storm Shadow missiles, both of which have a range of about 250 kilometres.

"In terms of Taurus... this is a decision for Germany," a senior US defense official told journalists when asked if the provision of long-range ATACMS could clear the way for Taurus missiles to be sent to Kyiv.

"But certainly the US provision of ATACMS as well as prior decisions by the UK and France to provide long-range cruise missiles, we would certainly hope that this would be a factor," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kyiv has long pushed for Germany to provide it with Taurus missiles - which can reach targets up to 500 kilometres away.

But Berlin has declined to send the missiles, fearing that it would lead to an escalation of the more-than-two-year-old conflict.