Catalonia cannot be compared with Crimea - there are no foreign troops there - Klimkin
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin believes that there is no point to draw parallels between Spain, declared independence from Catalonia, and the occupied Crimea, due to the absence of the Russian military presence in Catalonia.
"Here one cannot draw any parallels within the meaning. Imagine that in Catalonia now there would be 2,000 Russian tanks and armored vehicles, thousands of Russian regular troops and tens of thousands of Russian mercenaries. All this would be controlled by Russia ... But in terms of Russia's attempts to maintain a hybrid war against the whole of Europe to weaken it, we really have joint challenges," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, Alfonso Dastis, in Kyiv on Monday.
In turn, the Spanish foreign minister said that the issue of Catalonia, Crimea and Donbas are threats to the territorial integrity of states. "Surely, these issues are in some ways similar - there is a threat to the territorial integrity of our states in both cases. In this regard, our positions are unanimous in relation to each other," the Spanish foreign minister said.