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UKRAINE

Spanish PM to travel to Kyiv ‘in coming days’

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will travel to Kyiv "in the coming days,", a government spokeswoman said Tuesday without providing the exact date for security reasons.

Spanish PM to travel to Kyiv 'in coming days'
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (C) delivers a speech during his visit of a reception centre for Ukrainian refugees in Barcelona. More than 4.5 million Ukrainians have fled their country; around 25,000 of them have come to Spain. (Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP)

The announcement came a day after Spain said it would reopen its Ukrainian embassy in Kyiv “in a number of days”.

Sanchez “will travel to Kyiv in the coming days, you will understand that I can’t give you more information about the visit for security reasons,” government spokeswoman Isabel Rodriguez told a press conference.

“It is a way of showing our commitment to the Ukrainian people and government,” she added after a regular weekly cabinet meeting.

Sanchez is following in the footsteps of several other European leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, who have gone to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion of the country in a show of support.

Spain is providing aid to Ukraine through military equipment, humanitarian aid and by welcoming tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.

The country has so far sent 12 planes with tons of weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said Monday.

“We will send as many planes are as necessary,” she added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky compared Russia’s devastating assault on his country to the Nazis’ 1937 bombing of the northern Spanish town of Guernica in an address to Spain’s parliament earlier this month.

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POLITICS

Jailed Spanish reporter in Poland freed as part of prisoner swap

A Spanish reporter of Russian origin held in Poland suspected of spying for Moscow is among 26 prisoners released Thursday in Ankara in a major swap involving Russia and Western nations.

Jailed Spanish reporter in Poland freed as part of prisoner swap

“Journalist Pablo González, who was imprisoned in Poland for more than two years and five months on espionage charges, has been released and transferred for the time being to his country of birth,” his lawyer Gonzalo Boye said in a statement sent to AFP.

“This release has taken place in the framework of an exchange between Russia and Poland of journalists imprisoned in both countries,” the statement added.

The Turkish presidency, which coordinated the prisoner exchange, said it had included Pavel Aleksevich Rubtsov, the name on Gonzalez’s Russian passport.

A US official confirmed that a man with that name, who was detained in Poland, was among those released and going to Russia.

González, who worked for private Spanish television channel La Sexta and online newspaper Público, was detained at the Polish-Ukrainian border in February 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Poland’s counter-intelligence agency ABW accused González of being an agent of Russia’s military intelligence services GRU.

Born in Russia, González moved to Spain with his mother after his parents divorced when he was nine.

On the two-year anniversary of his arrest in February, Spain called on Poland to present “whatever evidence there may be” against him and to bring him to trial as soon as possible.

Ten Russians, including two minors, were exchanged for 16 westerners and Russians detained in Russia, said a statement released by the Turkish presidency, who coordinated the swap.

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