The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, held a meeting yesterday at La Moncloa with the Ukrainian Ambassador to Spain, Serhii Pohoreltsev, to whom he conveyed “the horror and indignation of Spanish society” over the atrocities perpetrated against civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev.
“President Sánchez has expressed to Ambassador Phoroseltev his condolences for the loss of human lives, as well as the horror and indignation of Spanish society at the terrible images reaching us from the Ukrainian town of Bucha,” Moncloa stated through a press release. “Spain is among the 40 countries that have requested an investigation by the International Criminal Court,” it continued. According to Sánchez, the war crimes being committed in Ukraine “cannot go unpunished”. Likewise, the head of the Executive confirmed to the ambassador that Spain will continue to provide political support, humanitarian and financial assistance and military equipment to Ukraine.
For his part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, stated yesterday through his official Twitter account that the “unbearable images of Bucha after the withdrawal of Russian troops that deeply outrage us.” “All my solidarity with the victims of this barbarism,” he continued. “War crimes must be promptly investigated and their perpetrators punished,” he added.
Around 340 corpses were discovered in Bucha following the withdrawal of Russian forces from this locality. The EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, expressed yesterday in a statement agreed with the 27 Member States his repulsion for this massacre, which “will be registered in the list of atrocities committed on European soil”. According to Borrell, these “disturbing images” are “the true face of the brutal war of aggression that Russia is waging against Ukraine and its people.”
“The Russian authorities are responsible for these atrocities, committed while they had effective control of the area”, so “they are subject to the international law of occupation”, warned the former Spanish Foreign Minister. Therefore, he assured, the EU will help the Ukrainian judicial authorities to collect evidence to document war crimes in order to hold the perpetrators of these “war crimes” “accountable”, and the EU member states will “urgently” elaborate new sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime. The Union is preparing a fifth package of sanctions, including a possible energy embargo for which there is not yet sufficient consensus.
