The president travels to Ukraine for the second time and when the war is over a year old to convey Spain’s support for Russia
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has arrived on Ukrainian soil to meet with Volodímir Zelenski when the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of the neighboring country is about to be fulfilled tomorrow. “We will be next to Ukraine and its people until peace returns to Europe,” Sánchez wrote on his Twitter social network account. The trip, confirmed by Moncloa this morning for security reasons, only when Sánchez was already on his way to his appointment in Kiev, redoubles the commitment that Spain has sealed with the fate of the invaded – to whom it has sent weapons, humanitarian resources and, now, Leopard tanks – in keeping with the seriousness of this historic crisis, the growing involvement with NATO strategy and the international profile cultivated by the president.
The President of the Government first visited the towns of Bucha and Irpin, where the Russians wreaked havoc in the first days of the war. In the case of Bucha, the accusations of the violation of human rights and the summary executions have been confirmed by international organizations.
During the visit of the head of the Spanish Executive, which includes a joint appearance with Zelenski, anti-aircraft alarms sounded in the Ukrainian capital after detecting the approach of a Russian drone.
I return to Kyiv a year after the start of the war.
We will stand by Ukraine and its people until peace returns to Europe.
Сьогодні повертаюся до Києва.
Ми будемо з Україною та її народом, poki до Європи не повернеться мир. pic.twitter.com/9ekUL9Lmfl
— Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) February 23, 2023
This is the second trip that Sánchez has made to the Ukrainian capital since the Russian invasion. The first was in the company of the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, took place on April 21 and served precisely to ratify Spain’s commitment on the ground to offer “all the help that is in its hands.”
The situation is now especially sensitive. Vladimir Putin responded on Tuesday to the surprise visit to Kiev by US President Joe Biden – a clear symbol of adherence to the Ukrainian cause – with the suspension of the latest nuclear control agreement and the warning that nothing will stop Russia in the recovery of its “historical territory”. On the 15th, NATO also agreed to increase its military production to face the “conflict of attrition” that, according to its analysis, war has become.
internal key
Sánchez meets with Zelenski at a particularly sensitive moment for the PSOE coalition with Unidas Podemos. In fact, the visit also issues a message in an internal key to some partners who have dusted off these days the ‘no to war’ in parallel to the schism over the reform of the ‘only yes is yes’ law. There are many issues in which Pedro Sánchez has been willing to make concessions to his coalition allies, but foreign and defense policy is not one of them and the President of the Government intends to continue making it clear, after the past Friday the general secretary of Podemos and Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, will urge you to “solemnly” acknowledge that sending weapons to Ukraine has been a mistake.
Sánchez already warned on Friday, during his visit to Slovenia, that in the face of Russian “aggression” against Ukraine there is no room for “equidistances.” It is his personal position but also that of the EU as a whole, whose rotating presidency he has to assume from next July. And the meeting that the President of the Government Zelenski will hold in kyiv falls within this framework, about which no details had officially been announced in order to preserve the safety of Sánchez.
Next arms shipment
Before his trip, Sánchez met yesterday in Madrid with a group of Ukrainian refugees. It did so almost at the same time that the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, detailed in Congress, at the request of the PP, what the next shipment of aid to Ukraine will consist of, six Leopard 2A4 battle tanks that have been hibernating since 2012 in the logistics center de Casetas, in Zaragoza, and which have been updated for use. “It is exciting to hear the testimonies of the refugees who fled Putin’s unjustified war,” the chief executive wrote in a message on Twitter. “We gave them the welcome they deserved and here they have managed to recover normality in their lives. We will continue to help Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
In his speech before the plenary session of the lower house, Robles also left the door open to deliver more tanks in the future “if they were necessary and our allies requested it.” The minister did not specify the date for the shipment of the Leopard 2A4, although she anticipates that they will be ready in the spring. What she did rule out was sending other more advanced tanks of the Spanish Army, the 2A6, because she, she stressed, “they are necessary for national defense.”
Robles, beast noire of Podemos in the socialist wing of the Executive, also boasted of the work of Spain as a “serious, reliable and responsible ally” and the work “in coordination” with the partners of the European Union and NATO. And at the request of the people’s deputy and retired general Fernando Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu, he specified that 54 shipments of military material have already been made, of which 42 have been transported by air, nine by land and three by sea, which included C-90 anti-tank rocket launchers, small arms, ammunition, machine guns, tank and artillery ammunition of 105 and 155-millimeter calibers, a battery of Aspide anti-aircraft missiles, Hawk missiles and anti-aircraft batteries, 104/14 caliber howitzers, 20 TOA M-113 armored personnel carriers, five naval systems, 10 light vehicles, 10 heavy vehicles or two ambulances.
From the questioning of the PP a motion will be derived that the Congress has to vote in the next plenary session and with which the first opposition party is interested in demonstrating the fracture of the PSOE and its partners. Popular sources advance that they will support Spain’s position in the contest, but they also reproach Sánchez for not having brought to the Chamber ‘motu proprio’ the explanations that his minister offered yesterday nor for having informed Alberto Núñez Feijóo of his plans at any time. “We are – they allege – before a State policy”.
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