The Spanish prime minister announced the visit to Kiev at the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday. According to Sánchez, the war in Ukraine and its consequences will be a priority during the country’s six-month presidency.
The visit is made to underline the EU’s support for Ukraine, military, humanitarian and economic, according to the Spanish Prime Minister.
Pedro Sánchez is due to visit Ukraine’s parliament and meet the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, before returning to Madrid on Sunday.
Ukraine applied for EU membership in February 2022 and was granted candidate status last summer. It is time to start negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in the Union, believes Sánchez.
At the EU summit in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi welcomed the symbolic visit.
“It says a lot about how important the next six months are for our Europe,” he said via link from Kiev.
It is the third time Sánchez has visited Kiev since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.