In a speech before the Ukrainian parliament that received several ovations, Sánchez said: “We will be with you as long as it takes.”
“I am here to express the firm determination of the European Union and of Europe against Russia’s illegal and unjustified aggression against Ukraine,” said the president on the day that Spain assumed the rotating presidency of the EU for the next six months.
Sánchez will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and later in the day they will hold a joint press conference.
Separately, Ukrainian regional authorities reported that at least three civilians were killed and 17 others injured in Russian shelling on Friday and overnight. In the eastern frontline province of Donestk, which is the scene of heavy fighting, three people were killed and 10 others suffered various injuries, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Saturday.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, heavy fighting was continuing in three areas of the region where it indicated that Russia had amassed troops and was trying to advance. In its last part published on social networks, the General Staff said that the main foci of the front were on the outskirts of three cities — Bakhmut, Lyman and Marinka — and that Russia had tried to assault them without success the day before.
Five other people, including a child, were injured on Friday and overnight in the southern Kherson region, its governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. According to the official, Moscow forces launched 82 artillery, drone, mortar and shell attacks on the province, which is bisected by a 1,500-kilometre (930-mile) stretch of the front and is still recovering from the floods caused by the collapse of a major dam on the Dnieper River earlier in the month.
In the northeastern province of Kharkiv, Russian shelling yesterday injured a 57-year-old man, said its governor, Oleh Syniehubov. In Sumy, further north, a teenager was injured in a cross-border attack from Russia, the local military administration said.
Referring to a possible peace dialogue, the president of the Spanish government stated that “only Ukraine can establish the terms and times for the negotiations. Other countries and regions are proposing peace plans. Their involvement is greatly appreciated, but, at the same time, we cannot fully accept it.”
“This is a war of aggression, with an aggressor and a victim. They cannot be treated equally and non-compliance should not be rewarded. That is why we support President Zelensky’s peace formula,” Sánchez added.
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Associated Press writer Ciarán Giles in Madrid contributed to this report.
FUENTE: Associated Press
