On Friday, February 23, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.
“During our meeting, I thanked Jose Manuel Albares for Spain’s support and solidarity with Ukraine. Spain will prepare a new package of military assistance to Ukraine, which will include ammunition. We also discussed President Zelenskyy’s Peace Formula and the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland,” Kuleba wrote on social network X.
“We agreed that Ukraine’s accession to the EU is on the right track,” the Foreign Minister added.
In December 2023, KSG Agro agricultural holding exported 4600 tons of wheat to Spain, the company’s press service reports.
According to the report, the wheat was purchased by grain trading companies.
“In wartime, any export delivery is always a task with many unknowns. However, despite numerous difficulties, we continue to export grain to international markets. In the current most difficult period of Ukraine’s history, the food security of many countries depends on us, agricultural producers and exporters,” said Sergiy Kasyanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KSG Agro, as quoted in the report.
As reported, in the first quarter of 2023, KSG Agro exported 4,200 tons of grain crops mainly to Asia and Africa. Deliveries were made as part of the “grain corridor” through the ports of Odesa and Odesa region.
KSG Agro, a vertically integrated holding company, is engaged in pig breeding, as well as the production, storage, processing and sale of grains and oilseeds. Its land bank is about 21 thousand hectares in Dnipropetrovska and Kherson regions.
According to the agricultural holding, it is one of the top 5 pork producers in Ukraine.
In January-September 2023, KSG Agro received $1,336 million in net profit, which is almost 14 times more than in the same period in 2022. Its EBITDA for the three quarters of this year increased by 67% to $4.5 million, and sales revenue increased by 16% to $11.9 million.
Spain is ready to promote Ukrainian agricultural exports and is interested in importing Ukrainian agricultural products, in particular corn and sunflower, Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Luis Planas Puigades said at an online meeting with Ukrainian Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Mykola Solsky on Monday.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, during the online meeting, the parties discussed the export of Ukrainian agricultural products and food security. In particular, the extension of Ukraine’s duty-free and quota-free trade regime with the European Union.
“Spain fully supports Ukraine in the face of Russia’s unprecedented and illegal aggression. This includes both military and humanitarian assistance. The Spanish Minister of Agriculture emphasized that support for Ukraine also means promoting Ukrainian exports, which is a key factor for the economy to continue to function,” the Ministry of Agriculture said, adding that Spain is interested in importing Ukrainian agricultural products, in particular corn and sunflower.
“I reaffirmed Spain’s support for the continuation of trade measures to support Ukraine during a video conference with the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine. Ukrainian farmers have managed to maintain production despite the difficulties,” Puigadez wrote on the social network X after the talks.
For his part, Solsky thanked his Spanish colleague for his understanding and support.
Spain will donate two medical armored vehicles to Ukraine to provide medical assistance and evacuate patients, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) reports.
“Spain’s humanitarian aid to Ukraine over the past two years has exceeded 466 million euros, the largest emergency response for a single country,” AECID said in a statement.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares inspected the armored ambulances that will be transferred to Ukraine.
“Spain will continue to support Ukraine in its defense of peace and freedom for as long as it takes,” the foreign minister wrote in a statement.
At the 17th meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine (Ramstein), Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles reported on the recent shipment of aid to Ukraine, including medicines and surgical instruments.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Defense, Robles informed about the recent shipment of 15 pallets of medicines and surgical instruments to Ukraine, which will ensure the operation of the field hospital transferred by Spain a few months ago.
“The minister also reported on the cooperation of Spanish industry in supplying equipment and ammunition to Ukraine and spoke in detail about the program to support the reception of families of Ukrainian soldiers killed in action in military recreation centers on the Spanish coast,” the statement said.
Robles noted good progress in the training of the Ukrainian military in Spain, where more than 3,000 servicemen have been trained to date. She added that it is planned to teach training courses on the law of armed conflict and international humanitarian law for representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As part of the visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Kingdom of Spain, the Head of State had an audience with His Majesty King Philip VI in Granada, the President’s press service reported on Thursday evening.
The President expressed gratitude to King Philip, the royal family of Spain and the entire Spanish people for their continued support for Ukraine.
“We appreciate the assistance provided by Spain from the first days of the full-scale invasion of the aggressor state in Ukraine’s struggle for our common European values,” Zelenskyy emphasized.
He also emphasized the significant humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian people and the great attention paid to Ukrainians who came to Spain to escape the Russian war.
According to the press service, His Majesty King Philip VI expressed his admiration for the Ukrainian people who are resisting Russian aggression. He emphasized that Spain’s support for Ukraine in this struggle is based on fundamental respect for the sovereignty of countries and the inadmissibility of armed aggression.
