MADRID (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Madrid on Monday where he was expected to sign a bilateral security agreement with Spain that will help his country fight its more than two-year war with Russia amid a recent offensive by the Kremlin’s forces.
Spain’s King Felipe VI met Zelenskyy at the capital’s Barajas airport. The Ukrainian leader was due to hold talks with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez about what local media reported is a planned 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) agreement for Spain to supply Ukraine with more weapons.
Zelenskyy had been due to visit Spain earlier this month but he postponed all his foreign trips after the Kremlin’s forces launched a cross-border offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region and left Ukrainian troops reeling.
That push has further strained Ukraine’s already depleted army, which in recent months has been fighting Russia’s intense drive deeper into the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region. Zelenskyy said on Sunday that the Kremlin’s army is mustering at another point in Russia, farther north but close to the approximately 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, presumably to try and crack Ukrainian resistance in the area.
A Western intelligence assessment suggested that Russia’s Kharkiv offensive has subsided.
“The northern Kharkiv front has likely stabilized with Russian territorial control fragmented and not joined up,” the U.K. defense ministry said Sunday. “Russia’s gains in this axis will be limited in the coming week, as Russia’s initial momentum has been contained by Ukrainian resistance.”
That is in line with Zelenskyy’s claim last Friday that Ukrainian forces have secured “combat control” of areas where Russian troops entered the Kharkiv region.
The onslaught unfolding as the weather improves has brought Ukraine’s biggest military test since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Slow deliveries of support by its Western partners, especially a lengthy delay in U.S. military aid, have left Ukraine at the mercy of Russia’s bigger army and air force.
Spanish newspaper El Pais, citing unidentified sources familiar with the bilateral deal, said it would include another batch of U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems that Ukraine has long pleaded for to help it fend off Russian missile attacks.
Other items include more Leopard tanks for Ukraine and 155mm artillery shells that are the most used by Ukraine on the battlefield, El Pais said. Spain will also continue training Ukrainian troops and treating its wounded soldiers.
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The Associated Press
