Spain points for the first time to the possibility of responding with diplomatic actions to Russia, after the escalation of violence in the invasion of Ukraine that has led to the discovery of hundreds of dead civilians in the city of Bucha. After what Lithuania announced a few hours ago the expulsion of the Russian ambassador and the closure of the Moscow consulate in Klaipeda and that it became known that France and Germany also plan to return their country to 35 and 40 Russian diplomatsrespectively, the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, has not ruled out a similar action.
“I do not discover anything if I say that the same reflections that the rest of the partner make, we also make them,” he said this afternoon at a press conference after a meeting of the Sahel Alliance. Albares pointed out that in the “terrible images” that have emerged after the withdrawal of Russian troops from kyiv, “it is evident that war crimes have been committed.” Those responsible, he added, must be “investigated” and “pay for it.” These events, he underlined, “provide us with many reflections to which we will respond in the coming days.”
Horror, pain and outrage at the terrible images that reach us from the Ukrainian town of Bucha. The war crimes that are being committed cannot go unpunished.
All our solidarity, help and support to the Ukrainian people.
– Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) April 3, 2022
The Government is seeking a coordinated reaction within the EU since, the minister recalled, “whenever we can we act together”. Albares revealed that he has been talking about this matter with the rest of the countries in the last few hours and that our country has been making decisions, together with the rest of the countries, depending on how events have progressed.
In line with the rejection expressed throughout Europe, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, expressed his “horror, pain and indignation at the terrible images” of Bucha on the networks. “The war crimes that are being committed cannot go unpunished.” Until now Spain had refused to act against the diplomatic representation in our country, in the hands of the ambassador, Yuri Korchagin.
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Although the minister refused to specify in this press conference the measures that Spain will take, both the expulsion of Korchagin or the call for consultations of the Spanish representative in Moscow, Mark Gomez Martinez, hinted that it is being valued, waiting for a joint decision to be taken throughout the EU. “Decisions of this significance I am not going to announce here and I will communicate them when they are made”, without denying at any time that they can be adopted.
The European Union has made public this Monday that it is finalizing a new package of sanctions against Russia for the last”atrocities” committed in Ukraine. A battery of measures that the European Commission could approve tomorrow with the intention of presenting the proposal, 24 hours later, to the permanent ambassadors of the EU.