The Diplomat
The Minister Counselor and Chargé d’Affaires of the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid, Dmytro Matiuschenko, yesterday thanked the EU for its help to his country in the face of the Russian invasion, but demanded “symbolic” support for its candidacy to join the Union because, in a war situation, “it is not the time to demand the usual economic and social requirements” in an accession process.
Matiuschenko participated yesterday as a guest at an informative meeting organized in Madrid by New Economy Forum with the president of the Elcano Royal Institute, José Juan Ruiz. During the event, the Minister Counselor thanked the “enormous support” that both the Spanish society and the EU are giving to his country, but demanded “more concrete steps”, among them that Ukraine be offered the “symbolic hand of support” of officially admitting its European candidacy. According to the Ukrainian representative, the current war “is not the time” to demand from Ukraine the “economic and social requirements” usual in a normal accession process.
For his part, José Juan Ruiz denounced Russia’s “intolerable imperialist aggression” in Ukraine and defended international sanctions against Putin’s regime because they can contribute to “erode” Moscow’s will to go ahead with the invasion. He also recalled that Russia has acted as a “huge gas station” for the EU, to which it provides significant amounts of gas and oil with which Moscow finances a large part of its investments and 50% of its consumer goods, and therefore demanded that Spain continue to bet on renewable energies in order to reduce dependence on the “autocrats” who control a large part of the world’s gas and oil reserves, such as Vladimir Putin.
Ruiz also warned that one of the collateral consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which “Spain should be concerned about”, is its repercussions in Africa, some of whose countries are highly dependent on Ukrainian cereals and fertilizers. In this regard, he recalled that the protests in Tunisia that started the Arab Spring began with demonstrations against the increase in the price of bread.
