Zelensky and his recent tours
There is no denying that the Ukrainian president is leaving the soles of his shoes behind as he stumbles around the world in search of more support to fuel a war that, had it not been for external aid, would have ended long ago with a truly disastrous result for the Ukrainian people.
It can be said that he has done and continues to do everything possible to ensure that, initially, the voice of his country and people reached the most important Western parliaments in the form of a videoconference through his figure and thoughtful and serious speeches.
Subsequently, after a period in which many leaders, mainly European, were elbowing each other to appear in a photo with him in Kiev in exchange for mere crumbs or nothing, and coinciding with the fact that the conflict was worsening and, consequently, the need for efficient and effective arms and ammunition to maintain the war or even to move on to one or more counter-offensives became much greater, his activities and interviews began to be much more selective and direct.
It is clear to no one that, despite what many thought at the beginning of this turmoil and did not augur well for his real or personal capabilities, his entity and character as a ruler, in a short time he has demonstrated his excellence as a businessman, leadership, inflexibility in the face of comfortable or ill-intentioned advice, and an example of tireless expenditure of energy. Qualities, which have been put to the test many times and he has always overcome them with much or brilliant success.
He is credited with being a perfect connoisseur of the policy of the weakest, which consists of approaching the tree that provides the most shelter and casts the most shade for the longest period of time. For this reason, he soon began to separate the dust and the chaff from the grain and understood who in the international arena deserved the most respect, trust and loyalty to the cause he defends.
Without despising anyone or anything, always polite to those who offer him a handout, he has been able to distinguish and separate the small fish from the leaders who are worth his while, because they have greater capabilities and, what is better, full and unambiguous willingness to really help him, and it is with them that he has recently met with the leaders of the main European countries, not forgetting other fora and authorities such as recently with the Pope, the International Court of Justice, the Arab League heads of state seeking support at their annual summit in Jeddah and finally, the G-7 forum in Japan from which he has drawn large, adequate and almost certain pledges of support.
In this context, it is very easy to guess that Spain, however much its president, the media paraphernalia that surrounds him and certain 'foreign friends of the moment' - such as Biden, with a small mouth, the other day in Washington - insist on stressing that we are a leading country, essential and even a leader - as some have even highlighted at certain times - in the search for and procurement of support in equipment, weapons and qualified technical training for Ukraine; The truth is that we have been sidelined from the agenda of a president who seeks and insists on obtaining the best and most necessary for his troops to be able to confront Russia and other countries or mercenary groups that support Putin.
To be honest, as a few of us predicted almost five hundred days ago, this war is not won with good warm-up gear or footwear, small-calibre ammunition, the occasional anti-tank missile, combat rations and all sorts of other small logistical equipment.
As the confrontation becomes more complicated, Putin puts more meat on the grill and tries to massively employ cutting-edge materials and technology, along with others that are not so cutting-edge; therefore, such a massive attack with such materials must be countered with materials of similar or superior characteristics, if possible, which means that, lately, his requests for support are made with specific names and surnames.
Both Sánchez and his government have two souls in almost everything, and in this conflict it is the same - the communist partners and some separatists who apparently have or have had some kind of relationship with Russia - do not agree, apart from our very limited support capabilities, that Spain should contribute, let alone stand out, in the supply of highly qualified weaponry, instruction and training, and so, as is our custom, we have once again tried to swim and keep our clothes on simultaneously.
At the end of February this year a meeting was held to determine the arms commitment to be ceded to Ukraine, at which almost all NATO allies and a few close allies were present, except Spain, because, as the Minister of Defence announced, with much effrontery, that the meeting was not important and that actions of this type should be much more coordinated and if possible within the EU as a joint package. All this despite the fact that important issues such as heavy and long-range artillery, missiles and, above all, tanks began to be discussed at the meeting.
Our ridicule was such that after the more than foreseeable slaps on the wrist that reached Moncloa from all corners of the world, in a few days we had to rectify the situation and take out of our sleeve -first there were four and later the scarce supply was increased to six- tanks that were re-inhabited with materials more than possibly 'cannibalised' at the Santa Bárbara Sistemas factory in Alcalá de Guadaíra (Seville), where they were transferred from a logistics facility in Zaragoza where they had been 'stored or put aside' for ten years, where a total of 53 'second-hand' Leopard A4s, which Spain bought from Germany as a preamble to the contract for the construction of 339 more modern Leopard 2 E tanks to be assembled in Spain, were transferred from a Zaragoza logistics facility where they had been 'stored or stored' for ten years.
My experience in high-level logistics for more than ten years, having been a tank driver for two years, and life experiences in Units and manoeuvres, lead me to believe that such material, besides being scarce or a drop in the ocean, will not be of much use and will not last very long in operation, especially in inexperienced hands and in the middle of combat.
To this number of tanks they were forced to add some artillery material, including some missiles of various types (quite obsolete), machine guns, rifle ammunition and a whole series of other equipment that we usually resort to. They were also sent a number of Armoured Tracked Transports (TOA) - a vehicle for transporting troops and materiel that is about to be completely replaced - which are mostly from the Vietnam War and arrived in Spain many years ago as American aid.
Zelenski knows that with the small number of tanks he got from the International Community as a whole, it is not feasible to mount a proper or general counter-offensive, so he has upped the ante and is now making firm attempts to augment them with more modern ones and with fighter aircraft and more long-range material.
To achieve this, he recently decided to take his suitcase and present himself - in addition to the aforementioned international forums and authorities - in the capitals of Europe's most important and most supportive countries, such as Italy, France, Germany and, above all, the United Kingdom.
A tour in which, to our surprise, we saw that Madrid was not included. It is not known whether it is because of this or because Sánchez is so worried about the upcoming regional and municipal elections on 28 March and does not want to lose a single minute of his attention that, once again, he himself declined to attend the recent Summit of the Council of Europe in support of Ukraine and as a way of forcing Russia to abandon its attitude, which was attended by the main leaders in person. The summit was important for a number of reasons, not least because it had not met for a long time, more than ten and seven years.
Once again, with Sánchez, we are back to being or never leaving the caboose or the forgotten ones in the international arena. And the reason is quite simple; with unfulfilled promises or by delivering mere trifles or almost obsolete ones, you don't enter the club of the greats unless you are invited as a simple listener, and they are already beginning to know him too well, out there.