The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, meets with Zelensky in kyiv and signs collaboration agreements with three Ukrainian regions

The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, met this Thursday afternoon in kyiv with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the Presidential Office of the Ukrainian head of state. The meeting has served for the Catalan president to convey the solidarity of Catalonia with the Ukrainian people and to invite the president of the country to visit Barcelona and Catalonia.

During the meeting, held at 5:00 p.m. for about 40 minutes, Illa conveyed to Zelensky Catalonia's commitment to the resilience of the people of Ukraine, highlighting that since the beginning of the war Catalonia has been at his side and that the Catalan president's trip is intended to be a sign of the will to strengthen and reinforce that support.

Likewise, Illa has defended democratic European values, which also represents Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression, and has expressed support for Ukraine's integration into the European Union and the use of frozen Russian assets to increase aid in the country.

Both presidents have spoken about the current situation of the war and the head of the Catalan Executive has conveyed, on behalf of Catalonia, the strong condemnation of the attacks against the civilian population that have been taking place in recent days and the unconditional support for a resolution of the conflict that guarantees a just and lasting peace.

At the meeting, President Illa also invited President Zelenski to visit Barcelona and Catalonia. The meeting was not initially included in the president's agenda, but sources from the Catalan Executive have explained that "there was a will on both sides" to hold this meeting, as was finally the case.

Until now, President Zelensky had only received heads of state and prime ministers, but the meeting was also attended by the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni, the Minister of European Union and Foreign Action, Jaume Duch, and the second head of the Spanish Embassy in Kiev, Antonio Santamaría.

Illa arrived in kyiv early in the morning, after a train journey of more than 10 hours, and has signed three collaboration agreements with the governors of three Ukrainian regions: Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia, to promote cooperation in areas such as support for those displaced by war, reconstruction or energy efficiency.

The agreement with Lviv, a region located in the extreme west of the country, focuses on the implementation of initiatives to support the many displaced people from areas further east and therefore more intensely affected by the war. The memorandum with Dnipropetrovsk is committed to common projects that promote energy efficiency and also opens the door to cooperation in the metallurgy, chemistry, and space and defense machinery sectors. With Zaporizhzhia, which has a good part of its territory occupied by Russia, it is proposed that Catalonia contribute to the reconstruction of critical infrastructures, the economic and industrial reactivation or the planning of sustainable development for this key region.

Illa highlighted in this regard that "the future of Europe is the future of Ukraine, and that Catalonia, as a convinced European country, is here to continue giving all its support to the people of Ukraine." The president stressed that Ukrainians are not only defending themselves, but all Europeans, and that in line with what the Spanish Government defends, the Catalan Executive is in favor of the full integration of Ukraine into the European institutions as soon as possible.

After the meeting, Zelensky reported on the meeting on social networks, where he thanked the visit and the “assistance” after the signing of the agreements. "During war, regional cooperation and direct support to communities are very important. We appreciate it when our partners, at their level, help address specific challenges on the ground," said the Ukrainian president.