Robles announces that Spain will send 6 'Leopard' battle tanks to Ukraine

Rejects the request of the PP so that Congress has to vote on the new deployment in Spain with an anti-aircraft battery and 80 soldiers

The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, announced this Wednesday that Spain will send six 2A4 'Leopard' battle tanks to Ukraine and could send more "if necessary" and the Government of Volodimir Zelensky and NATO demand it.

In a debate in Congress on the military aid provided to Ukraine since the start of the war a year ago, Robles has specified that Spain is already repairing an advanced section of 'Leopard', which are six combat tanks, and could put further operation if necessary.

These are some of the 'Leopard' that had been stored for more than a decade in Zaragoza and that were in a "very poor" state, according to Robles. He has selected those that had suffered the least deterioration and are already being fine-tuned at the Santa Bárbara factory in Alcalá de Guadaira (Seville).

The forecast of the Ministry of Defense is that they will be sent to Ukraine to be integrated into an international battalion at the end of next March or beginning of April, also coinciding with the completion of the training of the 55 Ukrainian soldiers who are being trained in Zaragoza for its crew and maintenance.

In addition, it has avoided giving details about the rest of the weapons provided to Ukraine out of "prudence", although it has reviewed "succinctly" some of the shipments that have been made. In total, there have been 54 transports to Ukraine (42 by air and the rest by land and sea).

Among the weapons sent, he has named the C90 anti-tank rocket launcher, ammunition, machine guns, projectiles, ammunition for cars, 105 and 155-millimeter artillery, an Aspide anti-aircraft battery and Hawk missiles and launchers, Mistral missiles, 105/14 howitzers, a center for deployable control for cyber defense operations, twenty TOA armored vehicles and five naval systems.

In addition, Spain has provided Ukraine with ten light vehicles, ten heavy vehicles, four light ambulances and one RG31 armored ambulance; together with 2,000 tons of diesel fuel and various protective material such as 5,000 bulletproof helmets, vests, gowns, jackets and 77,000 winter equipment.

In the humanitarian field, he has detailed that a total of 17 flights have been carried out that have transferred more than 600 vulnerable people to Spain. The majority are cancer patients, although there are also 58 war wounded who are being treated in the military hospitals in Zaragoza and Madrid.

Robles has framed this aid to Ukraine within the support of Spain against the "unfair" military offensive of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he has pointed out as "only responsible" for the war.

With this, he has claimed that aid to Ukraine is the best way to work for peace. "Some talk about diplomatic channels, but they were tried to the end and despite this, Putin has continued in this war massacring children, women, vulnerable people and bombing the civilian population," he claimed.

In this context, he has also framed the military deployments of Spain in the NATO countries near the border with Russia, such as Latvia, Estonia or Romania; that have increased exponentially over the past year to reinforce the "deterrence" policy of the Atlantic Alliance.

AUTHORIZATION OF THE CONGRESS OF THE MISSIONS

They also include a new deployment in Estonia of 80 soldiers together with a Nasams anti-missile battery, which Robles agreed with his Estonian counterpart last week in a bilateral meeting they held on the sidelines of the NATO Defense Ministers meeting.

The deputy of the PP Adolfo Gutiérrez Díaz de Otazu has demanded that this shipment of soldiers go through Congress as dictated by the National Defense Law, which grants the Lower House the power to authorize, in advance, the participation of the Armed Forces in missions outside the national territory.

However, Robles has rejected this option, justifying that the new deployment in Estonia is part of the air police operations in the Baltic in which Spain has participated since 2004.

"We have been sensitive this year, but this must change a lot," claimed the spokesman for the PP in Defense, who denounced the "lack of transparency" of the Ministry in relation to the deployments on the eastern flank of NATO and also with respect to to weapons being shipped to Ukraine.

"RADICAL CHANGE" IN INFORMATION POLICY

Díaz de Otazu has guaranteed the support of the 'popular', but has demanded a "radical change" in information policy to improve communication with the rest of the political forces and also make "pedagogy" in society. "We talk a lot about defense culture and when the opportunity presents itself we leave the field free and give wings to the detractors of the defense," he lamented.

The PP deputy has also taken the opportunity to denounce the Defense veto on the visit of his party leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to the troops deployed in Latvia and has asked the Government to reconsider its decision.