The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has gone from receiving criticism from the Ukrainian Ambassador to Spain for the supposedly low shipment of war material to hearing praise from her Ukrainian counterpart for the “speed of the Spanish reaction” to the new needs that have arisen in the field of war. Just under three months have passed between one situation and another. The most recent, this Wednesday, through a videoconference held by the two Defense Ministers.
As reported by the Ministry of Defense, this Wednesday afternoon, Robles and the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznijov, held a videoconference meeting at the headquarters of their respective departments. In it, they have addressed the current situation, eight months after the Russian invasion, and various aspects of the military aid that Spain has been providing. According to Defense, the minister has told her counterpart that there will be more shipments of material “over the next few weeks.”
The Ukrainian minister, as detailed in the press release, has expressed his gratitude to Spain and has valued “the speed” of the reaction to the new needs. Specifically, he has referred to the need for anti-aircraft launchers and electrical generators. And it is that Defense will send Ukraine four Hawk missile launchers – with a range of 40 kilometers – to improve its anti-aircraft defense against Russian attacks. A donation that occurs at a time when Russia has intensified the indiscriminate bombing of Ukrainian cities. On the other hand, yesterday four 400-kilowatt generator sets and one 150-kilowatt generator set left Getafe for Poland, from where they will be distributed. “Spain is the first country to respond,” Reznijov assured.
Thus, Reznikov thanked “the systematic and continuous nature” of Spanish military aid, “valuing the variety of our support in weapons, ammunition and equipment, the agility in shipments,” details the Defense note.
The ministers also discussed the training activities for Ukrainian military personnel that Spain has offered. In mid-September some twenty Ukrainian soldiers arrived who have been trained in Zaragoza in the use of the anti-missile battery that Spain has donated to defend themselves against Russian attacks. From Zaragoza, the Minister of Defense, who held a meeting with the trained soldiers, reported that another consignment of soldiers from Ukraine will arrive on November 1 to receive training.
At the same time, in the same month, other training tasks coordinated by the “Toledo Training Command” will be carried out. These will be carried out within the framework of the recently approved European Union Assistance Mission to Ukraine (EUMAM). Spain, according to current calculations, would be ready to train some 400 Ukrainian soldiers.
