Just on the eve of the dramatic first anniversary of the Russian invasion, Pedro Sánchez returned to Kyiv this Thursday morning to meet again with the President of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, with whom he will also star in a press conference. And all this just after Vladimir Putin has once again wielded the nuclear threat in the face of this war, by suspending Russian participation in the last nuclear disarmament treaty in force with the United States.
After a long trip undertaken on Wednesday to Poland by plane and from the Ukrainian border by train to reach Kyiv, where he arrived this morning, the President of the Government was received by the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Ukrainian Ambassador in Madrid and the Spanish ambassador in Ukraine, as reported by Moncloa.
“I return to Kyiv a year after the start of the war”, Pedro Sánchez himself pointed out on his return to the Ukrainian capital. "We will stand by the side of Ukraine and its people until peace returns to Europe," he assured.
The visit of the President of the Government to Ukraine takes place at the invitation of President Volodímir Zelenski, as reported by Moncloa, with less than 24 hours to go until one year has elapsed since the start of the war. Sánchez's schedule for this busy day included a visit to the towns of Bucha and Irpin, near Kyiv, as soon as he arrived in Ukraine. There he has been accompanied by the two mayors. In Irpin, the president has made a floral offering to the fallen in the war. "Bucha and Irpin show the wounds and scars of Putin's barbarism. Russia is not going to win this war," the president said in a tweet.
Later, Sánchez will meet with President Zelenski. Next, both will appear before the press.
Sánchez will then tour the Paseo de los Valientes, where Zelenski will show the Spanish president the plaque that commemorates his visit to Ukraine on April 21, 2022. He will also visit the Ukrainian Parliament, where he will meet with its president and deliver a speech before the plenary .
The head of the Executive already reiterated yesterday, before embarking on the trip, "the firm and unequivocal commitment" of the Government and Spanish society to support Ukraine "in all possible ways" to defend its "freedom and territorial integrity." "Saying no to Putin's war in Ukraine means saying no to imperialism and saying yes to peace and the freedom of the peoples," said the chief executive after meeting with a group of Ukrainian refugees among the more than 165,000 already welcomed in Spain since the beginning of the war.
"Every time I have had the opportunity to speak with your president, with Zelenski, I have conveyed to him our total commitment that Ukrainian refugees have all the rights that any Spanish citizen would have," he explained to these refugees. "We will continue to help Ukraine for as long as necessary," stressed Sánchez,
Sánchez has returned to Kyiv on the eve of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which occurred on February 24, 2022. And he does so just after the visits of the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Italian President , Giorgia Meloni. On this occasion, moreover, the head of the Executive is in the midst of preparations for the Spanish rotating presidency of the European Union, which will start on July 1. A semester where the war in Ukraine will also be very present.
The Spanish president, however, was already in Kyiv with Zelenski on April 21, 2022, together with the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, with whom he also visited the devastated city of Borodianka. On that trip, which made a deep impression on him due to "the horror of Putin's war", Sánchez announced the largest shipment of arms and military equipment from Spain to Ukraine. Almost a year after the start of the Russian invasion, Defense Minister Margarita Robles has just confirmed that Spain will send six Leopard 2A4 tanks to the attacked country's army.
The Spanish government strongly condemned on Tuesday the speech that Putin had just delivered from Moscow, and reiterated Spain's "solidarity and unity" with the Ukrainian people in the face of Russia's "unilateral, unfair and unjustifiable" aggression. The Executive spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, conveyed the Executive's total rejection of Putin's decision to suspend his participation in the nuclear arms reduction treaty. And she claimed "the European model of coexistence of rights and freedoms." "These are the values that we defend, and that are being threatened today by Putin in this war," warned the minister spokesperson. "For this reason, guaranteeing peace is defending the model of coexistence and freedoms," she settled.
