Eduardo González
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a new €615 million Spanish military aid package to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday in Madrid. Of this amount, €100 million will be allocated through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a NATO mechanism designed to assist Ukraine through joint arms purchases from the United States.
“Over the next few months, Spain will mobilize a new €615 million military support package for Ukraine,” Sánchez stated during the press conference following his meeting with Zelensky at the Moncloa Palace, on the occasion of the Ukrainian president’s second official visit to Spain.
“Over the next few months, Spain will mobilize a new €615 million military support package for Ukraine,” Sánchez declared during the press conference following his meeting with Zelensky at the Moncloa Palace, on the occasion of the Ukrainian president’s second official visit to Spain.
“We will be providing Ukraine with this new military aid package.” This package, he specified, will include 300 million euros for the acquisition of new defensive equipment, as part of the Security Cooperation Agreement between Spain and Ukraine, valued at 1.129 billion euros and signed in May 2024, precisely during Zelensky’s previous official visit to Madrid.
Furthermore, he continued, the package includes a transfer of 100 million euros to NATO’s PURL program for “the acquisition of urgent equipment requested by Ukraine and only accessible through the US military industry,” more specifically to finance the accelerated acquisition of air defense systems. Last October, Sánchez informed Zelensky that Spain would join the PURL program because, “currently, major air defense components are manufactured in the United States.”
The remainder of the military aid package includes a transfer of €215 million through the EU’s Action for Security in Europe (SAFE) financial instrument to strengthen the European defense industrial base through long-term loans for joint procurements among member states. The objective of this third segment of aid is to produce anti-drone systems and air search and surveillance radars, “many of them developed by Spanish companies.”
Separately, Pedro Sánchez announced the deployment, starting this Tuesday, of new financial instruments totaling €200 million to boost the reconstruction of Ukraine. These instruments, coordinated by the newly created Spanish Office for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, will allow Spanish companies to participate in the development of “highly critical sectors” such as energy, water, and transportation. Spain will also participate in a new joint United Nations project to rebuild heating systems in the Ukrainian town of Sammar and ensure supply to more than 28,000 people, at a cost of €2 million.
In short, he specified, “Spain will mobilize 817 million euros to support the Ukrainian Army in the defense of freedom and territorial integrity, to protect the civilian population, and to advance the reconstruction and modernization of infrastructure damaged by Putin’s neo-imperialism.”
For his part, Zelenskyy thanked Spain for “its support of Ukraine from the very beginning of the invasion” and, in particular, for the arms agreements signed this Tuesday with the Spanish government, which “will help Ukraine defend itself against Russian attacks.”
In this regard, he highlighted the importance of the aid through the PURL program, which “will help us purchase anti-aircraft missiles,” and the more than 200 million euros that the country will receive from Spain through the SAFE instrument for “joint defense industry production, which serves as an example for other European countries that should follow Spain’s lead.” This joint production, he specified, will be mainly used for radar systems and to “improve long-range capability”, and the profits it generates will be used to acquire weapons “in which we are deficient, such as anti-drone weapons”.
Signing of Agreements and Picasso’s ‘Guernica’
Sánchez and Zelensky witnessed the signing of several Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) to strengthen cooperation between Spain and Ukraine, both in the fight against Russian disinformation and in the tourism sector.
Before the meeting, the Prime Minister accompanied the President of Ukraine to the Reina Sofía Museum, where he showed him Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica,’ “a very powerful image, a universal symbol of the barbarity of war and a plea for peace.” In early April 2022, barely a month and a half after the Russian invasion, Zelensky stated during a videoconference before the full Congress: “It’s April 2022, but it feels like April 1937, when the whole world learned of the bombing of Guernica.”
The King
Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky was received at the Zarzuela Palace by King Felipe VI, whom he had already greeted during the recent general debate of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. During the meeting, according to the Ukrainian Presidency, Zelensky “thanked Spain for its sincere support of Ukraine in our fight against Russian aggression, for its military aid, and for its warm attitude toward the Ukrainians who have found temporary refuge in the country.”
The Ukrainian president’s visit also included a visit to the Congress, where he was received by the Speaker of the Lower House, Francina Armengol, and the President of the Senate, Pedro Rollán. He thanked them for the support of the Spanish Parliament for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and briefed them on the situation on the front lines and Russia’s attacks on civilians.
Albares
For his part, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares met at the Ministry headquarters in the Palacio de Viana with the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, to whom he reiterated “Spain’s unequivocal support for Ukraine for as long as necessary.” They discussed the indiscriminate Russian attacks on critical energy infrastructure, energy sufficiency (Russian attacks and bombings have resulted in the loss of 70% of Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity), water, heating, and other basic services.
Albares also signed an agreement to combat Russian disinformation in Latin America through joint cooperation mechanisms, such as seminars, training courses, and the production of Spanish-language content to counter this narrative.
