Sánchez will premiere in Kiev the first act of the Spanish presidency of the EU as a gesture of support for Ukraine

The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, plans to travel to Kiev this Saturday to start the six-month presidency of the EU in Ukraine. The visit, Sanchez's second in a few months, seeks to symbolize the Union's unwavering support for the country invaded by Russia at a time, moreover, particularly intense, in the early stages of the decisive Ukrainian counteroffensive and with the Kremlin weakened by the failed rebellion of the weekend, but which continues to escalate its threat. In Kiev, the Spanish leader will meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, according to community sources, before whom he will emphasize that Ukraine will be one of the main focuses of the Spanish semester, which will have in its agenda key elements such as the talks on Kiev's accession to the EU.

Sánchez's visit to Ukraine, a few days before the start of the electoral campaign for the elections advanced to July 23, will prevent him from participating in the great LGTBI Pride parade in Madrid as the first president to do so, a gesture that some voices of the collective expected at a time when the ultraconservative drift of Vox – with which the PP has agreed to govern together 140 municipalities throughout Spain and the Valencian Community— has left images such as the removal of rainbow flags from official buildings and other homophobic measures. The parade will be attended by members of the Government such as the second vice president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, the third vice president, Teresa Ribera, or the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

"We are going to show unity to President Zelenski," Sánchez said Thursday in Brussels, where he participates in the Council summit with the leaders of the Twenty-seven, which has the intervention by videoconference of Zelenski and with the presence at the beginning of the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. At the meeting, the Spanish president said, they will evaluate "the latest developments in Russia", the package of sanctions to drown the Kremlin's war machine and the formulas for Russia to be held accountable for its war crimes in Ukraine. Also the initiatives to push forward Volodymyr Zelensky's 10-point peace plan and his call for a peace conference.

Sánchez will debut the Spanish presidency in Kiev and will embark on an intense agenda in the first days of the semester, in which he will receive in Madrid the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the Council of the EU, Charles Michel, and the commissioners of the EU next week. Before, in Kiev, he will talk with Zelenski, who in recent weeks has tested Spain to join the "Patriot coalition" and provide Kiev with one of the anti-missile batteries it has. The Spanish presidency will have among its main priorities the sustained support for Ukraine, as the Spanish leader transferred to Zelenski during his visit in February, coinciding with the first anniversary of the start of the large-scale war launched by Putin. Kiev depends on the economic (and political) support of the EU to stay afloat and it will correspond to the Spanish semester the beginning of the talks on the revision of the multiannual budgetary framework proposed by the European Commission and that includes a new instrument of economic support of 50,000 million euros for Ukraine, an "extra" amount that is requested from the Member States.

Spain, which will start the rotating presidency inherited from Sweden very shortly before the elections, will also have to coordinate talks between member states following the report on Ukraine's progress on its path to the EU, which is expected in October and which will determine whether accession negotiations are opened with Kiev. as Zelensky wishes, or we have to wait a little longer. When the European Union seeks other formulas to support Kiev economically, the debate of whether the assets frozen by EU sanctions on Russia – or the profits they generate – can be used to pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine will be another point on the table of the Spanish presidency.

Zelenski will transfer to Sánchez the gratitude for the sustained support of the EU (and Lithuania) and will again raise the claim that his country needs security commitments from the Union and the countries of the Atlantic Alliance, say sources of Kiev Executive. It is a hot debate within the military organization of which Spain is also a member and in which the countries most active in their support for Kiev are considering providing security commitments bilaterally or in groups, as EL PAÍS advanced; a formula that fundamentally means agreements for Western arms shipments to keep flowing into Ukraine to create a shell that is a deterrent to Russia. A debate that EU leaders will also hold this Thursday in Brussels.

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