The President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, plans to travel to kyiv this Saturday to start the six-month presidency of the EU in Ukraine. The visit, Sánchez’s second in a few months, seeks to symbolize the Union’s unwavering support for the country invaded by Russia at a particularly intense moment, in the early stages of the decisive Ukrainian counter-offensive and with the Kremlin weakened by the failed rebellion over the weekend, but continues to escalate its threat. In Kiev, the Spanish leader will meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, according to community sources, to whom he will remark that Ukraine will be one of the main focuses of the Spanish semester, which will have key elements on its agenda such as talks on the accession of Kiev to the EU.
Sánchez’s visit to Ukraine, a few days after the start of the electoral campaign for the elections brought forward to July 23, will prevent him from participating in the great LGTBI Pride parade in Madrid as the first president to do so, a gesture that some voices in the collective expected at a time when the ultra-conservative drift of Vox – with which the PP has agreed to jointly govern 140 town halls throughout Spain and the Valencian Community – has left images such as the removal of rainbow flags from official buildings and other homophobic measures . The parade will be attended by members of the Government such as the second vice president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, or the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
“We are going to show unity to President Zelenski”, Sánchez stressed this Thursday in Brussels, where he is participating in the Council summit with the leaders of the Twenty-seven, which has the intervention by videoconference of Zelenski and with the presence at the beginning of the secretary NATO General Jens Stoltenberg. At the meeting, the Spanish president specified, they will evaluate “the latest events in Russia”, the sanctions package to stifle the Kremlin’s war machine and the formulas for Russia to be held accountable for its war crimes in Ukraine. Also initiatives to promote Volodimir Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan and his request for a peace conference to be held.
Sánchez will inaugurate the Spanish presidency in Kiev and will embark on an intense agenda in the first days of the semester, in which he will receive in Madrid the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Council, Charles Michel , and to the EU commissioners next week. Before, in Kiev, he will talk with Zelenski, who in recent weeks has been probing Spain to join the “Patriot coalition” and provide Kiev with one of its anti-missile batteries. The Spanish presidency will have sustained support for Ukraine among its main priorities, as the Spanish leader conveyed to Zelensky during his visit in February, coinciding with the first anniversary of the start of the large-scale war launched by Putin. Kiev depends on the economic (and political) support of the EU to stay afloat and the start of talks on the review of the multiannual budgetary framework proposed by the European Commission will correspond to the Spanish semester, which includes a new economic support instrument of 50,000 million euros for Ukraine, an “extra” amount requested from Member States.
Spain, which will begin the rotating presidency inherited from Sweden shortly before the elections, will also have to coordinate the talks between the Member States after the report on Ukraine’s progress on its path towards the EU, which is expected for October and which It will determine if accession negotiations with Kiev are opened, as Zelensky wishes, or if we have to wait a little longer. As the European Union looks for other ways to financially support Kiev, the debate over whether assets frozen by EU sanctions on Russia can be used — or the profits they generate — to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction will be another focus. the table of the Spanish presidency.
Zelenski will convey to Sánchez his gratitude for the sustained support of the EU (and Lithuania) and will once again raise the claim that his country needs security commitments from the Union and the countries of the Atlantic Alliance, say sources from the Kiev Executive . It is a heated debate within the military organization of which Spain is also a member and in which the countries most active in their support for Kiev are considering providing security commitments bilaterally or as a group, as EL PAÍS announced; a formula that essentially means agreements to keep Western arms shipments flowing into Ukraine to create a shell that is a deterrent to Russia. A debate that the EU leaders will also hold this Thursday in Brussels.
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