The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchezhas announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth 1,000 million euros during its participation in the International Summit held in kyiv on the third anniversary of the country’s Russian invasion.
“We will continue to support Ukraine all the necessary time,” said Sanchez during his speech at the Plenary, in which he has also defended the need for a fair and lasting peace and that the crimes committed by the Vladimir Putin regime are not unpunished.
The new military assistance package for this year is part of the Bilateral Security and Defense Agreement signed last May during the visit of the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelenski, to Spain and comes to join the 1,000 million already announced then.
Ukraine will receive 3.5 billion from the European Union in March
For her part, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyenhas also announced in kyiv that Ukraine will receive a payment of 3.5 billion euros from the European Union in March.
Von der Leyen, who has moved to the Ukrainian capital with 24 of his 27 commissioners, including the Spanish Teresa Ribera, said that “Europe is there to strengthen Ukraine in this critical period” and has announced “a new payment of 3.5 billion euros in favor of Ukraine “which will arrive in March.
He said that, so far, the EU and its member states have supported Ukraine with 134,000 million euros, “more than anyone.”
The head of the Community Executive has also stressed that on March 6 the heads of State and Government of the European Union will celebrate a summit on Ukraine and the European Defense convened this Sunday by the president of the European Council, António Costa, who is also Present today in kyiv.
Von der Leyen has added that he will present a comprehensive plan on How to strengthen European weapons and defense production capabilitiesof which Ukraine will also benefit.
But, he added, security goes beyond the military dimension, as it has been evident during the three years in which “Russia has been trying to plunge Ukraine in the dark implacably attacking the energy infrastructure.”
Therefore, von der Leyen has indicated that the EU has developed An ambitious package of energy security measures.
The objective of this plan is to guarantee a resistant, safe and competitive energy system for Ukraine, he said.
To do this, Von der Leyen explained that the electrical markets of Ukraine and Moldova will be fully integrated into the European electric market at the end of next year.
And, he added, “we will make the most of the potential of the huge gas storage facilities of Ukraine, 80 % of which are located near the EU Member States”, which will mean “a source of income for Ukraine” .
Von der Leyen said that the EU will accelerate investments in renewable energy in Ukraine.
“All these efforts will allow both Ukraine and the European Union to obtain energy security,” he said.
The president of the European Commission also stressed that peace in Ukraine, which must be “just and lasting”, “can only be achieved through force”, and for that reason the EU tries to consolidate the economy of the former Soviet Republic and will continue “training and equipping their troops.”
In addition, von der Leyen highlighted the formal adoption today of the sixteent of Aluminum of Russia, among other measures by the war in Ukraine.
“We will harden the punitive sanctions against Russia unless it shows a real will to reach a durable peace agreement,” said German politics, for whom on February 24, 2022, when Moscow began the large -scale military invasion of Ukraine, ” He will be remembered forever as an infamy. “
At this time, he said, “not only the fate of Ukraine is at stake, but also that of Europe.”
