Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday began the agenda of his third visit to Spain since the beginning of the war with a visit to the House of Representatives. The Ukrainian leader received the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Francina Armengol, and the President of the Senate, Pedro Roland, in the Hall of Lost Steps, and signed the Book of Honor of Congress, before which he had already spoken via video in April 2022.
Zelensky arrives in Spain with the aim of obtaining more military aid for his country against the Russian invasion. He is scheduled to meet the king at Zarzuela Palace. With Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez; And with representatives of the Spanish defense industry. He will also travel to the Reina Sofía Art Museum to visit Sanchez Guernica For Picasso, the universal symbol of rejection of war.
The meeting with Sanchez will take place a year and a half after they signed a bilateral agreement for the next ten years under which Madrid commits to handing over 1,000 million euros in 2024 to Kiev, which could reach 5,000 million in 2027. The two leaders are expected to preside over the signing of bilateral agreements before giving a joint press conference.
“Today I will hold meetings in Spain that have been prepared for a long time. We hope that another strong country will increase its support, help us save lives and move towards the end of the war,” the Ukrainian president wrote on the 10th, highlighting efforts so that “the meeting with Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez will lead to agreements” that strengthen his country.
“Every day, Ukraine achieves results in its relations with its partners,” emphasizes Zelensky, who came to Madrid after passing through Paris, where he signed a military cooperation agreement with France under which he hopes to acquire 100 French Rafale aircraft and anti-aircraft defense systems manufactured in the French state in the next ten years.
With this visit, Zelensky resumes a trip to Spain that had to be canceled in April this year to attend the funeral of Pope Francis. He will then travel to Türkiye, the country that acted as mediator, to “revive negotiations” with Russia and look for ways to force Moscow to sit down, talk and reach a diplomatic solution to the conflict. “Tomorrow I will hold meetings in Turkey,” he wrote in
A sensitive moment in Ukrainian politics
Zelensky has taken a European turn, which also takes him to Greece, while fighting continues on the front in the eastern cities of Pokrovsk and Kubyansk, which Russia has not yet controlled. At a particularly sensitive political moment due to the corruption scandal Which was revealed a week ago in Ukraine.
In the so-called “Midas case”, several ministers who served in his administration are being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) for their alleged involvement in a scheme to bribe contractors of the State Atomic Energy Corporation that would be led by businessman Timur Mendic, a friend of the president and 50% owner of the production company founded by Zelensky in his days as an actor.
The Ukrainian president issued sanctions against Mendic, who fled the country hours before NABU began searches on Monday last week. The gradual revelation of parts of a thousand hours of conversations intercepted by NABU and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office about the conspiracy has become the most popular political soap opera in Ukraine these days, with many wondering whether Mendich would have had so much influence over so many ministers at the same time without presidential approval.
Evidence in the case was collected over a period of 15 months by SAP and NABU. In July this year, Zelensky tried to subjugate the National State Prosecutor’s Office, a position dependent on the presidency, but was forced to correct and abandon his reform plan due to pressure from his key European allies.