Quote “We will be next to Ukraine until peace returns to Europe”
Spain Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has arrived on Ukrainian soil to meet with Volodímir Zelenski a day before the first anniversary of the Russian.
For security reasons, the trip was confirmed by Moncloa only this morning when Sánchez was already on his way to his meeting.
Sánchez is meeting with Zelenski at a particularly sensitive moment for the PSOE coalition with Unidas Podemos. The visit also issues a message to those government partners who are objecting to the support being provided by Spain, ‘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 defence policy is not one of them, which the Prime Minister intends to continue making clear, after the general secretary of Podemos and Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, stated 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 will assume from next July.
And the meeting that the Prime Minister Zelenski will hold in Kiev is framed within this framework, about which no details had been announced in order to preserve Sánchez’s safety.
This is the second trip that Sánchez has made to the Ukrainian capital since the Russian invasion, exactly a year ago tomorrow. The first, in the company of the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, took place on April 21 and served to ratify Spain’s commitment to offer “all the help possible.”
Before his trip, yesterday Sánchez met in Madrid with a group of Ukrainian refugees. The meeting coincided with an announcement to Congress by the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, what the next shipment of aid to Ukraine will consist of, six Leopard 2A4 battle tanks that have been stored in the logistics centre 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,” Sánchez wrote 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.”
