Spain to send grenade launchers and machine guns to Ukraine, minister says

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain will send a shipment of offensive weapons and ammunition including grenade launchers and machine guns to Ukraine on Friday to help it repel the Russian invasion, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said late on Wednesday.

“In this first shipment that will go aboard two planes, we expect to send 1,370 anti-tank grenade launchers, 700,000 rifle and machine-gun rounds, and light machine guns,” Robles said in an interview with Antena3 television.

She said two air force planes would fly the material to a location in Poland close to the border, where Ukrainian officials would pick it up.

“It is very important because (the equipment) allows for a very individualized defense that can be used even by people who do not have much experience using weapons,” she added

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had told parliament earlier on Wednesday that Spain would send arms directly to Ukraine. Previously it had only planned to do so via a European Union joint supply programme.

(Reporting by Nathan Allen; editing by Jonathan Oatis)