The Diplomat
Defense Minister Margarita Robles said yesterday that the rebellion staged this past weekend by the Wagner Group near Moscow shows “the degradation” that exists in Russia and recalled that Spain currently has contingents in countries where this Russian paramilitary group operates, especially in Mali.
“The situation in Russia is difficult and complicated” and the rebellion of the Wagner Group “shows the degradation that exists in that country, which led to the invasion in Ukraine”, Robles told the press in A Coruña, where he visited the headquarters of the Maneuver Support Command (MAM), in the Palacio de Capitanía General, and the Atocha Barracks, near the Plaza de María Pita, to thank them for their work in sustaining Spain’s missions abroad.
According to Robles, Ukraine has the “total and unwavering” support of the Spanish Government, “always in coordination with the allies, in contact with both the European Union and NATO”. For this reason, she assured, Spain remains “on standby” and its “absolute priority” continues to be “support for Ukraine”.
Likewise, the minister took advantage of her presence at the MAM headquarters to recognize its contribution to Spain’s missions abroad, which “would not be possible without this support work carried out here in A Coruña”, and to recall that Spain has “contingents in African countries such as in Mali, where Wagner’s troops are stationed”. The MAM currently has units deployed in Lebanon, Iraq, Mali, Turkey and Latvia, with a total of 528 military personnel.
“We have Armed Forces that have a very high standard of qualification, that are in many missions assuming a risk to their lives and, at the same time, leaving the Spanish flag so high that in the end everyone wants Spanish troops in operations,” said the minister, who was accompanied by the government delegate, Pedro Blanco, and by the Chief of Staff of the Army (JEME), General Amador Enseñat.
The head of the MAM, Major General Juan Francisco Arrazola – in charge of 11,600 military and 300 civilians (16% women) – explained that there are currently 528 troops deployed in foreign missions in Lebanon, Iraq, Mali, Turkey and, the largest, Latvia, with 325 troops participating in NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) deterrence mission.
The MAM is part of the Army Ground Force and is composed of the Logistics Brigade and units of Field Artillery, Anti-Aircraft Artillery, Engineers, Transmissions, Intelligence and NBC (Nuclear, Bacteriological and Chemical) Defense, distributed throughout the national territory under a single command.
