Spain announces €437 million military aid package for Ukraine after Zelenskyy-Sanchez meeting in Madrid
Spain has given Ukraine a new military aid package worth 437 million euros, valued at about 489 million US dollars.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the package in a message on the social media platform X on Thursday. The announcement followed a bilateral meeting in Madrid with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
At the meeting, Zelenskyy set out Ukraine's most urgent defence needs on the battlefield. The discussion centred on the areas where that support was needed most.
Zelenskyy told Sanchez that Russia had been carrying out sustained attacks on Ukraine's electricity and energy facilities, logistics networks, railways and other important civilian infrastructure.
He said Russia had damaged more Ukrainian railway locomotives, or engines, this year than in all the previous years of the war combined. Electricity transmission systems and water supply lines were also coming under attack repeatedly, he said.
Zelenskyy also described the situation in the capital, Kyiv, as extremely complicated at present. In such circumstances, he said, international humanitarian assistance was as important for Ukraine as military protection.
Sanchez, for his part, reaffirmed Spain's firm support for the Ukrainian people in a message on X after the meeting. He said defending the freedom of the Ukrainian people meant upholding international law, protecting the territorial sovereignty of states and strengthening European unity.
At the meeting, Zelenskyy thanked Spain's leadership for consistently providing Ukraine with military and political support since the start of the war.
