Eduardo González
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, announced yesterday before the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine that Spain will send long-range Patriot anti-aircraft interceptor missiles that will arrive at the logistics base “within four days.”
Robles made this announcement during her participation by videoconference, along with 24 other partner countries, in a new ministerial meeting of the Contact Group. The meeting included the intervention of the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, who warned that the war that his country has been experiencing since the beginning of the Russian invasion “is everyone’s war, a conflict where aid for anti-aircraft defense and artillery is vital”, and emphasized the relevance of training to be able to face the conflict.
Subsequently, the United States Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Rustem Umerov, intervened, after which the attendees were informed about the current situation on the ground, caused by Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, as well as the priority and most urgent needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and their longer-term requirements.
During her speech, Robles congratulated Austin and Umerov for the agreement reached in the US Congress and Senate to approve an important military aid package for Ukraine. Likewise, he reported the shipment, last Wednesday, of hospital medicines and individual first aid kits in combat and the delivery, this past Thursday, of a new consignment of heavy caliber artillery ammunition, which will be followed in the next months, other shipments of 155 and 120 millimeter ammunition.
The minister, who was accompanied by Admiral Juan Francisco Martínez Núñez, Secretary General of Defense Policy, focused especially on the Spanish contribution to anti-aircraft defense and announced, in this regard, the sending of a set of long-range Patriot anti-aircraft interceptor missiles. scope that “they will arrive at the logistics base within four days.”
Last Monday, during the press conference after the EU Foreign Affairs Council (CAE) held in Luxembourg, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, avoided specifying whether Spain will deliver Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, arguing that that “Spain does not act by announcement” and that, in time of war, it is a mistake “to make announcements about material that is absolutely vital” for the defense of the country. The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, Josep Borrell, warned this same day of the importance of providing air and missile defense systems to Ukraine.
On the other hand, Margarita Robles indicated yesterday before the Contact Group that the Spanish aid planned for the next two months includes light and heavy machine guns, protected logistics vehicles on wheels, armored infantry vehicles, anti-tank weapons and field artillery howitzers.
These shipments will be followed by the supply of various anti-aircraft surveillance systems and remote weapons stations for defense against drones, systems that the Spanish defense industry is preparing. Robles also reported that the preparation of new Leopard battle tanks for transfer to Ukraine is progressing as planned and that the first units will be ready before the end of June.
