Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez visits Kiev on the eve of the first anniversary of the war

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived in Kiev early Thursday morning in a show of support ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Going back to Kyiv today, a year after the war started,” Sanchez tweeted a video of himself getting off the train in the Ukrainian capital.

“We will stand by Ukraine and its people until peace returns to Europe,” he wrote in both Spanish and Ukrainian.

Sanchez’s office said Sanchez will meet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky later in the day on his second visit to Kiev since the war began on February 24, 2022.

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

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Margarita Robles confirmed that Spain would send six 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 quick victory.

But Ukraine fought tenaciously as the war dragged on to a stalemate that caused an estimated 150,000 deaths on both sides, according to various Western sources.