Salvador Illa begins a 48-hour trip to Ukraine

Barcelona The President of the Generalitat begins an official trip this Wednesday that will take him to spend 48 hours in Ukraine, accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jaume Duch, and he will also meet with the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni. Illa will arrive in Kyiv at a particularly complicated moment, as missiles have been falling on the city for six consecutive days, where at least 12 people died this Tuesday in a Russian attack on railway infrastructure.

"He will be the first regional president to go there and also the first European regional president on an official trip," they comment from the Generalitat. Illa's agenda includes political, social, and economic contacts, although a meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is ruled out. "The objective is to establish institutional contacts," emphasize sources from the Catalan executive, also thinking about the subsequent stage of the country's reconstruction and the sending of humanitarian aid.

For security reasons, the Catalan delegation will be reduced to a minimum and, in addition to the president's escorts, security will be the responsibility of the Spanish embassy in Ukraine, with whom the Generalitat is in permanent contact. "It is an important trip for the president," insist from the Government to justify that it be maintained despite the increase in Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital. In fact, the small delegation that will accompany him is aware that the agenda is subject to change and that at any moment they could end up taking refuge in one of the anti-aircraft bunkers.

Last April, Illa met in Barcelona with the head of Ukraine's mission to the European Union, Vsevolod Tchentsov, and the Ukrainian ambassador to Spain, Iúlia Sokolovska. Now he will be the one to visit Ukraine to learn firsthand the reality of a country that has been at war for four years, since Russia began the invasion. Sources from the Generalitat explain that the trip is part of "the promotion of a culture of peace and a message of hope".

Intense relationship

During these years, Catalonia has welcomed 50,000 Ukrainian refugees, including 7,000 children. Before the summer, Illa met with the 250 young Ukrainians who participated in the "Holidays for Peace" program, promoted by Sister Lucía Caram, who has been working in Ukraine on a humanitarian mission for a long time.

Collboni and Illa will coincide in Ukraine, but the mayor of Barcelona started his trip through Eastern Europe a few days ago. The first stop was Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), with which Barcelona has been twinned since 2000, and it also took him to Warsaw (Poland). Illa will be the first president of the Generalitat to visit Ukraine since the country has been at war, but Collboni will be the second mayor: Ada Colau already did so in 2022, months after the start of the confrontations.