By Nahia Sanzo
February 27: The National Police, in a joint operation conducted in several Spanish provinces (Asturias, Catalonia, Extremadura, Madrid, Murcia and Navarre), have today arrested “eight Spanish soldiers who have returned from Ukraine after participating in the conflict in the Donbass region, and are charged with various crimes.”
According to the first statement, the Interior Ministry’s operation is the result of various investigations of the General Information Office of the National Police led by the Office of the National Court. The operation is still open and has not yet made public the charges that detainees are accused of.
As reported in the press, citing police sources, all the detainees are from different trends of pro-communist ideology and had participated in the conflict on the pro-Russian-speaking side. According to information provided by the newspaper El País, the presence of these young people (all aged between 20 and 30 years) in social networks facilitated their identification and arrest upon their return to Spain.
Both El Pais and El Mundo report that they are accused of crimes of “murder, possession of weapons and explosives, and acts against the interests of Spain.” The Interior Ministry has not confirmed these charges.
In a recent interview, the commander of the Ghost Brigade’s communist unit, which some of the detainees were part of, warned that a change in Spanish law had forced the volunteers to leave the militia and return to Spain. Alexei Markov hoped for the incorporation of other young people to meet the need for doctors and other professionals as support, not just for the militia, but for civilians, subjected for months to army shelling.
The operation is still open and gathering evidence, so it is not ruled out that further arrests will occur. We will provode updates as additional information becomes available.
Red Star News + Translations 