Kiev (EFE)
“We are going to send six Leopard 2 A4s,” said Sánchez, who added that the “intention” of his government is “to go from 6 to 10 (tanks) in the coming weeks and months.”
In addition, Sánchez also recalled that Spain will train Ukrainian soldiers in the handling of these war vehicles.
The Spanish president arrived early this Thursday by train in Kiev to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart and convey Spain’s support for Ukraine, one day after one year of the start of the large-scale Russian invasion.
“I return to kyiv a year after the start of the war,” Sánchez wrote on his Twitter account. “We will be next to Ukraine and its people until peace returns to Europe,” added the president along with a video that shows him getting off the train and walking along the platform.
This is Sánchez’s second visit to Ukraine since the start of the war, since he also visited the country last year.
The President of the Spanish Government is the third foreign leader to visit Kiev this week, after the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the head of the Italian Government, Giorgia Meloni, visited Kiev on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
Zelenski thanks Spain for its support
“You are helping to protect the lives of Ukrainians from Russian terror,” Zelensky stressed during his joint press conference with Sánchez.
Zelenski has insisted that his country has “felt this firm solidarity from the first day of the war until today”, and has specifically referred to the shipment by Spain of anti-aircraft systems that Ukraine uses to protect its critical infrastructure from Russian bombing. .
The Ukrainian leader also mentioned the 6 Leopard tanks that Spain will send to kyiv.
Sánchez: Bucha and Irpín show Putin’s “barbarism”
Sánchez was received at the Kiev train station by the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Ukrainian Ambassador in Madrid and the Spanish Ambassador to Ukraine.
From the station, the head of the Executive has traveled to the towns of Bucha and Irpín, located near the Ukrainian capital, where he was able to see first-hand the devastation caused by the brief occupation of the area by Russian troops at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.
Sánchez visited, among other places, the church of San Andrés de Bucha, where he saw images of the victims left by the Russian army before heading to neighboring Irpín, where his Ukrainian hosts also showed him buildings and infrastructure damaged by the troops occupants.
There he assured that both Ukrainian cities show “the wounds and scars of Putin’s barbarism.” “Russia is not going to win this war,” added the head of the Spanish Executive, in a message on his Twitter account, in which he specified that “all of Spain is with Ukraine.”
These two municipalities around Kiev have become a symbol of the atrocities committed by Kremlin troops in Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion of this country began on February 24.
Due to their proximity to kyiv, the two towns are an obligatory place of pilgrimage for the leaders of Ukraine’s allied countries who visit the capital.
This Thursday, in addition to meeting with the Ukrainian president, the Spanish president will deliver a speech before the plenary session of Parliament and will honor the memory of those who fell in the war.
The trip of the President of the Spanish Government takes place one day after his Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, will announce that Spain will send six Leopard tanks to Ukraine, which hopes to have these German-made armored vehicles to face the Russian offensive and regain the initiative in the war.