Spanish Foreign Minister Declines Question About Donating Patriot Systems To Ukraine

Umer Jamshaid Published June 08, 2023 | 10:57 PM

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Thursday declined to say whether Madrid was ready to supply Kiev with its Patriot air defense systems

MADRID (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th June, 2023) Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Thursday declined to say whether Madrid was ready to supply Kiev with its Patriot air defense systems.

Spanish newspaper El Pais reported earlier in the day that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had been putting pressure on Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to donate US-made Patriot air defense systems deployed in Spain.

Albares only said that Madrid would assist Ukraine in mitigation of the disaster caused by the partial destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in Kherson Region.

"Spain will respond to Ukraine's needs in the face of this disaster, which is a humanitarian as well as an ecologic crisis, and which will affect the lives of thousands of people who will have to leave their homes," the minister said after a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, according to Spanish news agency Europa Press

Spain currently owns two Patriot systems, one of which has been stationed at Turkey's Incirlik Air Base since 2015, and the other is placed in the Spanish autonomous community of Valencia and is considered essential for the country's national defense.

El Pais reported that Spain was ready to donate to Kiev the Patriot system stationed in Turkey, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that it should remain in the country even after the expiry of the current deployment agreement on December 31, 2023.

Spain provided Kiev with 10 Leopard tanks, 40 M113 armored personnel carriers as well as Aspide air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, Hawk surface-to-air missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and other ammunition. The latest shipment included six Supercat marine boats. Sanchez said that Madrid had spent over 300 million Euros ($323 million) on military aid for Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict.