Madrid, Spain – Like many in Spain, Begoña Castro is in favour of serving to Ukraine to struggle again in opposition to the invading Russian military.

Actually, she believes the Spanish authorities will not be doing sufficient to cease Russian President Vladimir Putin from overrunning Kyiv.

“We’ve got been following the NATO line and giving arms, however evidently the coalition authorities is break up and don’t wish to give an excessive amount of assist to Ukraine,” the 43-year-old monetary analyst advised Al Jazeera from her residence in Seville, southern Spain.

“The defence minister stated the opposite day that Spain would ship defensive weapons. Defensive weapons!? We’re both sending weapons or not. I assist Ukraine and I simply don’t assume we’re doing sufficient. We must always ship extra arms.”

Castro, who describes herself as politically “proper wing”, says she feels Spain, like many different European international locations, has an obligation to assist Ukraine in its time of want as the primary anniversary of the beginning of the warfare nears on February 24.

It’s an opinion held by most Spaniards, in accordance with a collection of polls.

Spain’s left-wing coalition authorities, nevertheless, is split on its response.

The ruling Spanish Socialist Employees’ Social gathering assist the NATO coverage of sending arms to assist Ukraine and pledged earlier this month to ship 5 Leopard tanks to Kyiv.

As a part of the European Union, Madrid has additionally sanctioned Russian firms and oligarchs whose yachts have been moored in superyacht marinas alongside the Mediterranean.

José Manuel Albares, the Spanish overseas minister, lately defended the choice to ship tanks, saying it might not escalate the warfare with Russia.

“Sadly, [Russian President] Vladimir Putin doesn’t want any excuse to escalate [the war]. They [the Russians] will do what they need. All of us need peace however there’s a individual, [Putin], who doesn’t need it,” Albares advised Telesur tv channel in an interview.

However the far-left Unidas Podemos, the coalition’s junior accomplice whose votes prop up the minority authorities, has adopted a special strategy.

The occasion, which began from avenue protests in 2014, has backed sending humanitarian assist however opposes rising arms shipments.

Formally, when the coalition authorities was fashioned in 2019, Podemos agreed that the Socialists would take the lead in overseas coverage, and it might not intrude.

Nevertheless, tensions emerged within the Spanish authorities after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Main figures in Podemos have voiced opinions in public which contradict the Socialists’ coverage.

“Podemos opposes the NATO warfare rage and (we) refuse to escalate the warfare in Ukraine with increasingly more weapons to encourage the warlords even when (public opinion) crushes us on tv,” Pablo Echenique, the parliamentary spokesperson for Podemos stated final week in reference to NATO’s resolution to ship extra Leopard tanks.

Public assist for army assist

Greater than 157,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Spain since final 12 months, in accordance with official information from December. Of those, 64 % are girls, and 36 % are beneath 20.

However Spain isn’t just offering shelter to refugees fleeing Russian bombs.

Final month, 225 Ukrainian troops and civilians started coaching at a army base in Toledo, south of Madrid, beneath an EU scheme.

A ballot in January for the Centre for Sociological Investigations (CIS), a authorities physique, discovered that 23.4 % of Spaniards had been “very frightened” about Ukraine, whereas 49.2 % stated they had been “frightened” and 12.9 % had been involved in regards to the warfare. In distinction, 13.8 % stated they weren’t involved.

An analogous ballot in March final 12 months by CIS discovered seven out of 10 backed NATO sending army arms to assist Ukraine.

Putin’s army aggression in Ukraine was among the many largest worries for Spanish youngsters, in accordance with a examine of adolescents by the College of Seville for UNICEF Spain which was printed in February this 12 months.

It discovered the Ukraine warfare involved 12.8 % of youngsters, making it the second largest fear after the consequences of the pandemic, which involved 14.6 % of these questioned.

“We wish to hear extra to our boys, women and adolescents as a result of they’ve rather a lot to say,” stated José María Vera, government director of UNICEF Spain.

‘Spain must be impartial’

Nevertheless, not everyone seems to be in favour of sending assist or tanks to assist Ukraine.

Some on the far proper and the laborious left have opposed supporting Kyiv as a result of they’re sympathetic in direction of Moscow, or they imagine that the NATO coverage doesn’t assist Spain’s pursuits.

“It’s a waste of time. Spain must be impartial like Hungary or Austria. Spain was impartial within the first and second world warfare and this was a lot better for our nationwide pursuits,” Guillermo Rocafort, a lawyer, advised Al Jazeera.

“Following America blindly like this doesn’t assist our nation at a time when our financial system wants to focus on recovering from the pandemic.”

He believes that arms despatched by the West have been used to “assault civilians in pro-Russian areas” in Ukraine.

Lluis Orriols, a professor of politics on the College Carlos III in Madrid, stated the variations inside the coalition had been “evident”.

“But it surely should be stated that there was an settlement by each events once they fashioned a coalition that the Socialists would lead on overseas coverage and Podemos wouldn’t intrude. So, these variations of opinion have much less penalties,” he advised Al Jazeera.

“The place of Podemos is typical of the Spanish left which suggests it’s in opposition to the Atlantic pact and NATO and to not be allied with the US. However Podemos should not in opposition to serving to Ukraine. They’re extra in favour of humanitarian assist. They’ve a extra pacifist angle in direction of the warfare.”

However what of the Ukrainians who’ve began a brand new life in Spain?

Anastasiia, who didn’t wish to give her surname, travelled from Kyiv to stick with about 40 different girls and kids to remain at a shelter close to Valencia in April final 12 months.

She was grateful to the Spanish for the reception she had obtained.

“For us, it has been laborious to begin a brand new life right here. We miss our households and our nation in fact a lot. However the Spanish have been so pleasant and welcoming it has not been so troublesome,” she advised Al Jazeera via an interpreter.