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Sánchez Visits Kyiv on Day Spain Starts EU Presidency to Underline Bloc’s Support for Ukraine

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez attends the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 29, 2023. (Reuters)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez attends the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 29, 2023. (Reuters)
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Sánchez Visits Kyiv on Day Spain Starts EU Presidency to Underline Bloc’s Support for Ukraine

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez attends the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 29, 2023. (Reuters)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez attends the European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium June 29, 2023. (Reuters)

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez started Spain's six-month presidency of the European Union with a lightning visit to Kyiv on Saturday to underline the bloc’s support of Ukraine in the face of the invasion by Russia.

Sánchez arrived in the Ukrainian capital by train from Poland.

The Spanish government said he would address Ukraine's parliament at 0830 GMT (4:30 a.m. EDT) and then meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two will give a news conference around 1030 GMT (6:30 a.m. EDT).

Zelenskyy announced the visit Thursday in an address to European leaders gathered for a summit in Brussels. He highlighted the symbolism of the visit and the importance of the next six months for Europe. He added that it was the moment to begin negotiations for Ukraine’s entry into the EU.

Speaking Friday in Brussels, Sánchez said, “The war in Ukraine will be one of the great priorities of our presidency, with the focus being on guaranteeing the unity (on the issue) among all member states.”

This was Sánchez’s third time in Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Sánchez will return to Madrid by Sunday, when he meets with the European Council President Charles Michel, a day before the arrival of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the college of EU commissioners.

Besides Ukraine, Spain hopes to make progress on several major EU issues during its presidency, which ends on Dec. 31.

Sánchez believes that the EU will finalize a controversial pact on migration despite lingering differences within the 27-nation group with Poland and Hungary still evident on Friday.

Earlier this month, EU countries a breakthrough on asylum law reform, sealing an agreement on a plan to share responsibility for migrants entering Europe without authorization. Only Poland and Hungary voted against.

EU lawmakers have warned that this may be the last chance to solve the issue before EU-wide elections in a year’s time, when migration is likely to be a hot-button issue once again.

The rotating presidency comes as Spain faces an early general election on July 23, which polls shows could oust Sánchez’s leftist coalition government and replace it with a conservative administration, or even a coalition with the extreme right, and follow a trend happening in much of Europe.

Sánchez has said that he wants to focus on rebuilding intra-European supply chains to avoid shortages and guarantee energy sovereignty. This would include establishing European dominance in the fields of artificial intelligence and digital security.

Spain also hopes the EU-Latin America summit set for July 17-18 in Brussels, the first in eight years, will represent “a qualitative leap” in relations between the two regions and will lead to a powerful investment agenda with Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Spain also wants to make EU progress on the green transition and electricity market reform. Spain has significant experience in the sector as it forges ahead with solar, wind power and green hydrogen installations at an unprecedented rate.

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UN Refugee Agency Accuses Cyprus of Pushing Asylum Seekers into a UN Buffer Zone

Men walk at a camp inside the UN controlled buffer zone that divide the north part of the Turkish occupied area from the south Greek Cypriots at Aglantzia area in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Aug, 9, 2024. (AP)
Men walk at a camp inside the UN controlled buffer zone that divide the north part of the Turkish occupied area from the south Greek Cypriots at Aglantzia area in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Aug, 9, 2024. (AP)
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UN Refugee Agency Accuses Cyprus of Pushing Asylum Seekers into a UN Buffer Zone

Men walk at a camp inside the UN controlled buffer zone that divide the north part of the Turkish occupied area from the south Greek Cypriots at Aglantzia area in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Aug, 9, 2024. (AP)
Men walk at a camp inside the UN controlled buffer zone that divide the north part of the Turkish occupied area from the south Greek Cypriots at Aglantzia area in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Aug, 9, 2024. (AP)

The United Nations refugee agency on Friday accused government authorities in ethnically divided Cyprus of rounding up dozens of migrants and forcing them back inside a UN-controlled buffer zone that they crossed to seek asylum.

UNHCR spokeswoman Emilia Strovolidou said that as many as 99 asylum seekers were “pushed back” into the buffer zone between mid-May and Aug. 8.

The asylum seekers entered the European Union member country from the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and crossed the buffer zone into the south where they could file their applications with the internationally recognized government.

Of those 99 migrants, 76 people from countries including Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Iraq and Gaza remain stranded in two locations inside the buffer zone, to the west and east of the capital Nicosia. They include 18 minors, six of whom are unaccompanied.

Strovolidou said although the UN has supplied the asylum seekers with military food rations, tents, blankets, toilets and washing facilities, they remain exposed to extreme heat, dust and humidity.

“Their humanitarian needs are increasing, and their physical and psychological condition is deteriorating as they continue to remain in these conditions, some for nearly three months,” Strovolidou told The Associated Press.

She said some are survivors of gender-based violence and trafficking and people suffering from serious illnesses such as cancer, asthma and serious mental health issues.

Cyprus was split in 1974 when Türkiye invaded after supporters of a union with Greece mounted a coup with the backing of the junta then ruling Greece. Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, but only the south enjoys full membership benefits.

Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus, urged an immediate end to the “pushbacks” and for Cypriot authorities to live up to their obligations under international and EU law.

“In nearly all instances, the asylum seekers found their way into government-controlled areas from where they were intercepted by the Cyprus Police and forcibly dumped into the buffer zone after having their passports and mobile phones confiscated,” Siddique told AP.

He said the UN has shared video evidence of the “pushback operations” with Cypriot authorities.

“The buffer zone in not a refugee camp,” Siddique said.

The Cyprus government has taken a tough line with migrant crossings along the 180-kilometer (120 mile) length of the buffer zone, insisting that it would not permit it to become a gateway for illegal migration.

Deputy Minister for Migration Nicholas Ioannides said earlier this week that the government doesn’t want to be at odds with the UN and is in talks with the UNHCR to resolve the issue.

What complicates the issue are the peculiarities of the buffer zone itself, which isn’t a formal border and as such. Cypriot authorities say the UN is mistaken when it speaks about pushbacks that specifically pertain to “expulsions at recognized sea or land borders.”

In a written statement to AP, the ministry said migrants who cross the buffer zone arrive on the island’s north from Türkiye — a safe country — and then cross southward along remote stretches of the porous buffer zone where there are no physical barriers preventing crossings.

According to an established legal framework, Cypriot police and other authorities are lawfully empowered to conduct “effective surveillance” of the buffer zone in order to combat illegal migration by “discouraging people from circumventing checks” at all eight lawful crossing points.

The ministry said given the “tremendous migratory pressures” Cyprus is under, the government has adopted a “principled stance” to avoid turning the buffer zone into a “route for irregular migration” while offering humanitarian assistance to stranded migrants.

Human rights lawyer Nicoletta Charalambidou is contesting the Cypriot government’s claim that it’s acting in line with international and EU law.

She has launched legal action on behalf of 46 stranded migrants to get Cypriot authorities to allow them to submit asylum applications.

“The government has an obligation to allow these people to file asylum claims,” she told AP. She added that asylum applications should be assessed individually to determine if conditions of safety exist in Türkiye for each applicant.