The visit this Thursday to Kiev by the head of government is the second he has made since the start of the Russian invasion just a year ago, and with it he intends to ratify the President of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, Spain’s full support for his country. Sánchez left Madrid yesterday afternoon in the direction of Ukraine. The final journey to kyiv must be done by train, since the airspace in Ukraine is closed and only used by military aircraft.
Pedro Sánchez, who is accompanied by the Secretary General of the Presidency, Francisco Martín, and the head of his President’s Cabinet, Óscar López, will hold a meeting with President Volodímir Zelenski. Upon his arrival in kyiv he was received by the Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Ukrainian ambassador in Madrid and the Spanish ambassador in Ukraine. For security reasons, and as in the previous trip, La Moncloa has not reported in advance in Madrid the details of the president’s journey or the acts that Sánchez will carry out.
During the visit of the chief executive, a strong explosion was heard in the western part of Kiev, according to the Ukrainian outlet The Kyiv Independent, and minutes before the detonation, air alerts had been activated throughout the city, which have been ringing for almost an hour. Some citizens, after the alarms went off, announcing the possibility of an air attack by the Russian Army, took refuge in the subway, reports Efe.
Ukrainian authorities announced earlier this week that parts of the country would strengthen security measures ahead of the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, which falls tomorrow.
“I return to Kyiv a year after the start of the war,” Sánchez wrote on Twitter. “We will be next to Ukraine and its people until peace returns to Europe,” added the ruler, who posted a video showing him getting off the train and walking down the station platform in the Ukrainian capital.
This is Sánchez’s second visit to Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, who already traveled to Ukraine on April 21 of last year. He is the third foreign leader to visit Kiev this week, after US President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited kyiv on Monday and Tuesday.
The trip by the President of the Spanish Government comes 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 recover initiative in war.
In addition to the meeting with Zelenski, Sánchez visited the Irpin neighborhood in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev, which suffered one of the most serious massacres of civilians at the beginning of the conflict, with nearly half a thousand deaths, and Irpin. From the field, Sánchez has informed the local authorities that “all of Spain is with Ukraine” and that Russia will not win the war, which began a year ago after the attack by troops ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Bucha and Irpin show the wounds and scars of Putin’s barbarism. Russia is not going to win this war,” Sánchez wrote in a message on Twitter. Both cities were occupied by Russian troops in the first weeks of the invasion. After being recovered by the Ukrainians, massacres of hundreds of civilians were discovered.
In the same message, he published a video in which he appears visiting the Ukrainian towns, together with the mayor of Bucha, Anatolij Fedoruk, and of Irpin, Oleksandr Markushin, who have explained the circumstances of the attacks they suffered. After the meeting with the Ukrainian president, both leaders will appear before the media.
They will also carry out a tour of the Paseo de los Valientes, where the Ukrainian leader will show Sánchez the plaque that commemorates his previous visit to Ukraine, which was on April 21, 2022. Finally, they will visit the Ukrainian Parliament, where Sánchez will pronounce a speech in plenary.
