Sánchez arrives in kyiv to meet with Zelenski on the first day of the Spanish presidency of the EU

MADRID, 1 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has arrived this Saturday in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, to meet with the President of the country, Volodimir Zelenski, in what will be the first act of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union.

"I wanted the first act of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU to be in Ukraine together with Volodimir Zelenski", Sánchez pointed out in a post on his Twitter profile in which he shared a video of his arrival in the Ukrainian capital .

The head of the Spanish Executive has assured that he will convey to the Government and the Parliament of Ukraine "all European solidarity". "We will maintain support for the Ukrainian people until peace returns to Europe," he added.

The visit to Ukraine will officially start in Parliament at 10.30 am (Spanish peninsular time), where Sánchez will deliver a speech to the plenary. Afterwards, he will meet with Zelenski in the presidential palace and, around 12.30 pm, both will appear on a press wheel.

This Saturday is the third visit that Sánchez has made to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion of the country on February 24, 2022. The first, in which he traveled accompanied by the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, took place in April of 2022 and in it he also had the opportunity to verify the ravages of the war in the town of Borodianka.

The head of the Executive returned to kyiv on a very important date, on February 23, the eve of the first anniversary of the conflict. On this second occasion, in addition to meeting with Zelensky, he delivered a speech before the Ukrainian Parliament.

That visit took place before his subsequent visit to China, before whose president, Xi Jinping, he defended the peace plan formulated by Zelenski and the need for the Chinese president to speak with both Moscow and Kiev, and the one he carried out weeks later to Washington to meet with Joe Biden. That peace plan, he insisted this Friday, is "the best basis for achieving a just and lasting peace."

On this occasion, Sánchez is traveling in the midst of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and a week after the failed revolt by the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeni Prighozin, who stopped the advance of his mercenaries towards Moscow on Saturday after an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the one that has ended in Belarus.