The head of the Executive insists that the allies must analyze the delivery to Zelenski of combat planes that Spain, in any case, does not have
“History will recognize the contribution that Spanish society makes in favor of peace and peace – Pedro Sánchez warned in an interview recorded on Thursday from Kiev but broadcast this Friday, coinciding with the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine – has moments in which what we have to do is provide military tools or instruments to a people to be able to defend themselves and legitimately defend what they consider theirs, their independence and their freedom”.
The words of the Chief Executive can be read as a kind of response to the reluctance that, within the Government itself, its coalition partners have shown in sending weapons to the Ukrainian army. This Friday, again, the general secretary of Podemos and Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, insisted that arming the Ukrainians is a “mistake” that has only contributed to the “war escalation” and argued that time is giving them to the reason “This war is only going to end with a ceasefire negotiation or with a military confrontation between military powers and I am sorry to say that we are closer to the second scenario,” she came to predict.
The President of the Government, who on Thursday visited the Ukrainian capital for the second time since the start of the war, was convinced, however, that Russia will not resort to a nuclear attack despite having suspended its last disarmament treaty with the United States, and reiterated that Spain will maintain aid to Ukraine “as long as it is necessary.”
Sánchez even insisted, in various interviews broadcast by Ser, public radio and television, Antena 3 and La Sexta, that he is willing to study together with European and NATO partners the possibility of sending combat planes to Ukraine to that, as Volodimir Zelensky has been demanding for months, the Ukrainian army can repel the Russian offensive that analysts foresee for the beginning of spring, when the thaw facilitates its advance.
Sending fighters would mean a qualitative leap that until now the allies had preferred not to address. The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who also visited Kiev on Tuesday, affirmed together with Zelenski himself that the matter “is not on the table” and that is also the formula used by the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, in a interview published this Friday by the newspaper ‘El País’ but which was carried out on Wednesday. The President of the Government, however, argued that it is a “legitimate request” that only has a defensive character and that will have to be analyzed, although Spain, in particular, does not have the F-16s in demand.
“crucial” role
Sánchez was also convinced that, in this conflict, Spain is exactly where the Spanish want it to be. “The recognition that President Zelenski and Parliament have made, not to this government but to Spanish society,” he said in allusion to the fact of having been invited to Ukraine on such an emblematic date as the anniversary of the start of the war-, It has to make us proud of the role we are playing at this crucial moment in the history of Europe and the world.”
In an appeal to the anti-war left, he also argued that aid to Ukraine is a “moral duty.” “If we look back and review our own history, in the last century, in a conflict of similar characteristics, the international community left us abandoned and we cannot make the same mistake,” he said, referring to the civil war. In any case, he insisted that Spain and the EU are also looking for a peace that is also in their own interest. But he stressed that such a peace must be “durable and just”, which would imply respect by Russia for Ukrainian territorial integrity.
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