The Diplomat The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, participated yesterday in Ramstein (Germany), together with more than 50 countries, in a new ministerial meeting of the Contact Group for the Defense of Ukraine, which was attended by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and in which she announced the next shipment of an important package of Spanish military aid, including air defense systems. According to the Ministry of Defense in a press release, Zelensky opened the meeting by thanking the partners for their military support through material and training, as well as their humanitarian aid, and stressed the seriousness of the current situation in his country and the need to continue receiving aid and weapons systems to defend against Russian aggression, with special attention to air defense systems. Then, the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin, and the Minister of Defense of Germany, Boris Pistorius, spoke, after which Ukrainian and American authorities and experts reported in detail on the real situation on the ground and on the systematic punishment that Russia continues to inflict on the civilian population, even in the rear, and on critical infrastructures that affect basic services. The following session presented the most urgent needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and reviewed the ongoing support initiatives, in particular the different coalitions of capabilities for support to Ukraine. Among the attendees was the Ukrainian Minister of Defence, Rustem Umerov. During her speech, Robles announced, in response to President Zelensky's express request for air defence systems, the immediate dispatch of a complete HAWK battery, which includes the six missile launchers also donated by Spain and already located in Poland. The minister also detailed the processes of preparing new donations and shipments of material from the Armed Forces and the numerous projects that the Spanish defence industry is undertaking as a result of the bilateral Security Agreement between Spain and Ukraine, signed a few months ago by Zelensky and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in Madrid. Margarita Robles also reported on the renewal, starting next October 1, of the program of hosting Ukrainian families in military residences on the Spanish coast and, likewise, on the increase in the offer of training courses for the personnel of the Ukrainian armed forces within the framework of the EUMAM mission of the European Union, hoping to exceed 6,000 trained soldiers by the end of the year. At the end of the meeting, Minister Robles signed Spain's accession to the IT Coalition, led by Estonia and Luxembourg, and to the Maritime Coalition, led by Norway and the United Kingdom. During the meeting, the Minister of Defense was accompanied by Admiral Juan Francisco Martínez Núñez, Secretary General of Defense Policy. :
