Sánchez promises Ukraine aid much less than the amount of its purchase of Russian gas

@ElentirENG ES 5·27·2024 · 17:49 0

The President of Ukraine arrived today in Spain on an official visit in which he was received by H.M. King Felipe VI.

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Sánchez promises Zelensky 1 billion euros in military aid

Volodímir Zelensky has also been received by the president of the Spanish government at the Moncloa Palace. Pedro Sánchez has promised Zelensky military aid worth 1 billion euros by 2024. The announcement sounds very good and as a Spanish citizen and defender of the cause of Ukraine, I would be very happy if it were true. The problem is that Sánchez's word is very devalued.

Spain has only contributed 330 million to Ukraine, less than Estonia

According to data from the Ukraine Support Tracker of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, updated as of February 29, 2024, Spain is one of the Western countries that has provided the least military aid to Ukraine. The amount of this aid indicated by this source is 330 million euros, less than small countries such as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia or Slovakia, despite the fact that Spain has many more resources than them. To give us an idea, German military aid already exceeds 10,000 million euros, that of the United Kingdom is 5,300 million, that of Denmark is 4,780 million and that of Poland reaches the 3,000 million, despite being a poorer country than Spain.

The Spanish government has already injected Russia 6,420 million in gas purchases

To that we must add another very alarming issue. As the Spanish newspaper El Debate pointed out three months ago, Spain's purchases of Russian gas total 6.42 billion euros since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. In 2022 Sánchez injected 4,111 million euros into the Russian economy through these purchases, and in 2023 the total amount of these purchases by Spain was 2,311 million, according to data from the Institute of Energy Economics and Analysis Financial (IEEFA).

The purchases of Russian gas by the Sánchez government are being so considerable that Spain has already replaced France as the main importer of Russian gas by ship in the European Union, according to El Confidencial three months ago.

Sánchez finances Russian aggression more than the defense of Ukraine

Thus, for practical purposes, Sanchez's government injects much more Spanish money into Russia than into Ukraine: it is financing Putin's aggression to a much greater extent than the defense of the Ukrainian people against that invasion. Maybe Zelensky does not blame him for diplomacy and because he needs to look for help even under the stones, but I, as a Spanish citizen, am outraged by what our government is doing. If Sánchez really wants to help Ukraine, in addition to increasing the amount of military aid to that country to put it on par with what our allies provide, what he should do is also stop buying gas from the invaders.

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Photo: La Moncloa.