Pedro Sánchez arrives in Kiev to meet with Zelenski

The Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, arrived in Kiev this morning to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodímir Zelenski. The aim of this visit is to convey Spain's support for Ukraine, to show its rejection of the invasion by Russian troops and to reiterate that it will continue to send weapons for the Ukrainian army, as well as more humanitarian aid for the population.

Sánchez's trip has been carried out in the same way as other leaders who have travelled to Kiev: with secrecy. The prime minister landed on Wednesday at around 6 p.m. in the Polish city of Rzeszow, some 100 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, from where he travelled by car to Lviv. Once in Ukraine, he took a train to Kiev after a ten-hour journey. According to the planned agenda, the Spanish president is expected to travel first to the city of Borodyanka and then return to Kiev.  

Also travelling with Pedro Sánchez was the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, who was accompanied by a representative of the Ukrainian government. On their arrival, the flags of the three countries were already posed. It is also expected that after the meeting, the three leaders will hold a press conference.

However, Pedro Sánchez has already announced the message he intended to convey to Ukraine during this visit: solidarity, arms and humanitarian aid, as he showed during a visit to the Reception, Care and Referral Centre for Ukrainian refugees in Malaga. "We are going to do everything in our power to ensure peace in Ukraine sooner rather than later. And in the meantime, logically, we are going to deploy all the humanitarian aid that we are deploying and all the military aid," Sánchez said.

Along with this, the head of the Spanish Executive also plans to formalise the reopening of the Spanish Embassy in Kiev, as he announced in previous days "as a sign of the commitment of Spanish society to the Ukrainian people".

With this official visit, Sánchez joins other trips already made by other EU leaders and representatives. The most recent visit was on Wednesday by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, during which the form to request recognition of Ukraine as an applicant to join the European Union was processed. Michel made the same trip that Pedro Sánchez is expected to make, stating that "history will not forget the war crimes" suffered in Ukraine.

In any case, these visits come as pressure mounts in several Ukrainian cities. The Russian Defence Ministry has reported that Mariupol is now under the control of Russian forces, while Ukraine is demanding a humanitarian corridor to get more than 1,000 civilians and 500 soldiers out. Meanwhile, Putin has ordered the cancellation of plans to storm the Azovstal plant in order to continue blockading it "safely". However, according to pro-Russian militias, blocking this latest resistance in Mariupol would require many more troops. "It will be necessary to reinforce our military personnel so that not a fly will die," said the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Alexei Nikanorvov.

Another city where the conflict is intensifying is Kharkov, Ukraine's second largest metropolis. Its mayor has claimed that the city is under heavy shelling. "Big explosions, the Russian Federation is furiously shelling the city," he said. Nearly a third of Kharkov's population has already been evacuated.