Albares attends the inauguration of the first UNESCO centre in Ukraine, financed by AECID

Eduardo González The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, attended this Tuesday in the city of Lviv the inauguration of the first UNESCO Cultural Centre in Ukraine, financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). He also signed an agreement with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, to promote the study of Spanish in educational centres in this country and announced the delivery of a new contribution of ten million euros in humanitarian aid. Albares arrived in Ukraine unexpectedly on Tuesday, as part of a regional tour that will include, on Wednesday, an official visit to neighbouring Poland, where he will be received by his counterpart, Radosław Sikorski. “I have just arrived in Ukraine,” declared Albares on the social networks X and Bluesky. “Three years of unjust and unjustifiable war,” he continued. “We must make this the year of peace. A fair peace that guarantees the sovereignty and freedom of Ukrainians. Spain supports them in this,” he added. One of Albares’ first acts in Ukraine was to attend in Lviv, together with Andrii Sybiha, an event in homage to those who fell “in this long cruel and unjust war, many of them defenseless civilians. There can be no impunity for these acts,” he declared through social networks. “Spain is with the Ukrainian people. Our tribute is also to their courage and resistance,” he added. “We began our visit on the Field of Mars at the Lychakiv Cemetery, where we paid tribute to our heroes who gave their lives defending Ukraine from Russian aggression,” wrote the Ukrainian Foreign Minister. “I thank Spain for its support and look forward to meaningful talks today,” he added. Albares and Sybiha then toured the city's historic centre, accompanied by UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and the Ukrainian Minister of Culture, Mykola Tochytsky, with whom he also held a bilateral meeting. Albares then held a bilateral meeting with Sybiha. “Spain supports Ukraine's defence so that it can win peace. We protect civilians with humanitarian aid. We defend the principles of the UN Charter and work for European security,” he wrote. “I have spoken about all of this with my Ukrainian counterpart in Lviv,” he continued. “We have also signed an agreement on cooperation in education to promote the study of Spanish in Ukrainian schools.” “Fruitful talks with my Spanish friend José Manuel Albares. I appreciate Spain's commitment to provide more military and humanitarian support to Ukraine. "We agreed on the next steps to strengthen defence cooperation, expand the bilateral partnership and consolidate efforts for a just peace," wrote Andrii Sybiha. In addition, Albares announced a new contribution of ten million euros from the Spanish Cooperation in humanitarian aid to Ukraine, which is added to the hundred million that Spain has given to this country since the war began. In addition to this humanitarian aid, there is another in reconstruction aid, which has accumulated 400 million euros since the beginning of the Russian aggression. During the meeting with Sybiha, Albares also reiterated support for the process of Ukraine's accession to the European Union, which began during the Spanish Presidency of the EU, and reminded him that Spain has always expressed its firm support for this accession. UNESCO Centre Next, Albares and Audrey Azoulay attended as guests of honour at the inauguration of the UNESCO Cultural Centre in Lviv, the first in this country. “The Spanish Cooperation and UNESCO protect the heritage and culture of Ukraine. Today, with Audrey Azoulay and Andriy Sybiha, we inaugurated the cultural centre in Lviv,” Albares wrote on social media. “Culture is reason against barbarism. It is tolerance and pluralism. Culture in Ukraine is the hope for peace,” he said. During his speech, Andriy Sybiha said that this event is an eloquent proof of “hope and unity” and shows how the world is discovering Ukraine. “After February 24, 2022 (date of the Russian invasion), we all realized how important culture is, how important our roots are, how important identity is,” he said. “Therefore, the creation of these cultural centres has immediate direct consequences and is extremely important for our resilience in the fight against the Russian aggressor,” he added. “I believe that, with the support of our foreign partners, we will restore more than a hundred buildings in Lviv that were damaged by Russian attacks. We will restore them and preserve this heritage for future generations,” he said. The Spanish Government announced at the beginning of 2024 that Spain had contributed almost 1.7 million euros to UNESCO to preserve artistic heritage in Ukraine, with special attention to Lviv. According to the Executive, Spain participates, through the AECID, in the Spain-UNESCO Trust Fund for the development of the project ‘Culture for Peace and Resilience. Creation of a Cultural Hub in Lviv’. Among the objectives of this project is the launch of a pilot cultural centre “in the form of a UNESCO Club” in Lviv. Lviv has the largest concentration of architectural monuments in Ukraine and its historic centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 2009, it was declared the cultural capital of Ukraine. The city's heritage is currently in serious danger due to the Russian invasion. Ukraine's cultural production fabric has lost 90% of its resources due to the war. In addition, the minister paid a visit to the Lviv hospital, where he announced that the Government will allocate a Spanish team of medical trainers to facilitate training tasks for the health workers at the Ukrainian hospital. This is Albares' third bilateral trip to Ukraine. The first took place on 9 February 2022, just two weeks after the start of the Russian invasion. On that occasion, he was received by the president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the prime minister, Denys Schyhal, and the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba. Albares returned to Kyiv on 2 November 2022 and was again received by Zelensky, Shmyhal and Kuleba. Separately, Albares travelled to the Ukrainian capital to take part, on 2 October 2023, in a historic and completely unforeseen EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC). It was the first time that EU ministers and the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, met outside the EU.

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