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Spain's premier in Kyiv ahead of Ukraine war anniversary

"Returning to Kyiv today, one year since the start of the war," Sanchez tweeted along with a video of him stepping off the train in the Ukrainian capital. "We will stand with Ukraine and its people until peace returns to Europe," he tweeted in Spanish and Ukrainian.

AFP WORLD
Published February 23,2023
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Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez travelled to Kyiv on Thursday in a show of support a day before the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Returning to Kyiv today, one year since the start of the war," Sanchez tweeted with a video of him stepping off the train in the Ukrainian capital.

"We will stand with Ukraine and its people until peace returns to Europe," he wrote in Spanish and Ukrainian.

Sanchez will meet with Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky later in the day on what is his second visit to Kyiv since the war began on February 24, 2022, his office said.

The visit comes shortly after US President Joe Biden made a surprise trip to Kyiv, his first since the invasion began, and a day later, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also arrived.

On Wednesday, Defence Minister Margarita Robles had confirmed Spain would send six of its German-made Leopard tanks to bolster Ukraine's fight against Russia.

On February 24, 2022, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine as part of a so-called "special military operation" for what they thought would be a rapid victory.

But Ukraine has fought back doggedly with the war dragging on into a stalemate that has caused an estimated 150,000 casualties on both sides, according to various Western sources.