Advertisement

Spain set to send troops and warships to aid NATO in Ukraine-Russia conflict

The Local Spain/AFP
The Local Spain/AFP - [email protected]
Spain set to send troops and warships to aid NATO in Ukraine-Russia conflict
NATO frigates Sps Blas De Lezo of Spain (front L), Dom Francisco De Almeida of Portugal (front R) and HMCS Winnipeg of Canada (back) are docked at Sarayburnu port in Istanbul on December 6, 2015. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP)

Spain’s Defence Ministry has announced it will deploy two frigates and troops to the Black Sea to assist NATO amid rising tensions and concerns that Russia will invade Ukraine. 

Advertisement

Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles on Thursday confirmed that in “three or four days” Spain will send its Blas de Lezo military ship to the Black Sea in Bulgarian waters, to join the already dispatched Acción Marítima (BAM) Meteoro frigate which is docked there.

Robles added that Spanish authorities are also offering to send fighter planes to the region to assist NATO in protecting Ukraine from a potential invasion by Russia.

How many more Spanish military troops would be deployed along with Blas de Lezo’s 250 marines is yet to be confirmed, but Spain already has 360 NATO-aligned soldiers in Lithuania and six Eurofigher jets in Romania surveilling the Black Sea.

"Spain has participated in all NATO deployments as a serious ally for a number of years, and in this specific case the deployment of the frigate has been brought forward within the framework of this agreement," the Spanish Defence Minister said.

Advertisement

“Russia cannot tell any country what it can do, and NATO will defend any country that Russia wants to enter”.

The deployment of Spanish military troops to the region is causing further divisions in Spain’s coalition government, with members of far-left party Unidas Podemos criticising Spain’s involvement in the growing conflict and calling it a “grave error” and “strategically clumsy” as it will “increase the price of gas, fuel and cause inflation to rise”. 

Former Unidas Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias warned Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists that “pro-US furore cost (ex-PP Spanish Prime Minister) Aznar his job”, in reference to Spain’s involvement in the Iraq War, and “it would be very clumsy for the socialist part of the Spanish government to go against its partners and form the ‘war party with the PP”. 

Washington and Moscow's top diplomats meet on Friday in Geneva in a last-ditch bid for a solution over Ukraine, with the United States increasingly fearing that Russia will invade despite warnings of severe reprisals.

President Joe Biden bluntly assessed on Wednesday that his counterpart Vladimir Putin is likely to "move in" on Ukraine and warned of a "disaster for Russia".

Advertisement

The United States and its allies have warned of severe economic sanctions for an invasion.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that Biden's remarks were destabilising and could "inspire some hotheads in Ukraine with false hopes".

Russia, which already fuels a deadly insurgency in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014, has demanded guarantees that NATO never accept the former Soviet republic or expand otherwise in Moscow's old sphere.

The United States has declared the idea a "non-starter" and accused Russia of undermining Europe's post-Cold War order by bullying another country into submission.

Even while rejecting the core Russian demands, the Biden administration has said it is willing to speak to Moscow about its security concerns.

One proposal by the United States is to revive restrictions on missiles in Europe that had been set by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War deal trashed by former president Donald Trump's administration as it accused Moscow of violations.

The Biden administration has also offered more transparency on military exercises. Russia has not rejected the proposals but says that its core concern is Ukraine and on Thursday, announced massive naval drills in the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and Mediterranean as a show of force.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also