The Spanish military will soon begin to train Ukrainian soldiers in Spain, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported.
The soldiers will be trained on tanks, missile systems, battlefield medicine, and demining work at an army base in Zaragoza, the daily wrote.
The Ukrainians are reportedly going to be trained on the systems they will use on the battlefield, apart from simulators and transportation.
The size of the contingent and the duration of the training has not been revealed.
Ukrainian Criticism of Spanish Aid
The development followed a meeting between Spanish defense minister Margarita Robles and the Ukrainian ambassador to Spain Sergey Pohoreltsev.
Pohoreltsev had criticized Madrid’s military aid to Kyiv last month, saying that the last aid shipment Spain had sent was in May, without some systems that had been asked for.
“I cannot say that we are satisfied, nor that we are receiving everything that Spain could supply,” El Pais quoted him as saying.
Madrid’s Latest Aid
Spain announced additional defense aid to Ukraine last month, including 20 armored vehicles, 75 field artillery pallets, an anti-aircraft system, and 1,000 tons of diesel.
Pohoreltsev said that the Ukrainian government is “most interested” in the supply of 155-millimeter and 122-millimeter howitzers and mortars, the need for which has been conveyed to the Spanish government.
“The process is not simple, but we are working and we are very grateful,” the outlet quoted the ambassador as saying.
Spain had earlier withdrawn its offer to send 40 mothballed Leopard tanks to Ukraine over the “complexity” of the process, including the need to seek the approval of the German government.