We cannot accept threats and insults from Russia against the high representative of the European Union. While Russia targets the EU leadership, it also targets Europe itself, a point emphasized by Secretary of Defense Margarita Robles as she spoke to reporters at SATCEN, the EU satellite coordination center located at the Torrejón de Ardoz airbase.
The moment marked a coordinated push with Josep Borrell. Robles opened a demanding week of defense diplomacy, outlining an agreement that paves the way for meetings within Spain during the European Council presidency. An informal gathering of defense ministers is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, with additional foreign policy headlines slated for the 31st.
Borrell co-chairs both events. Robles responded to charges made a week earlier. A spokesperson for Vladimir Putin on unofficial television labeled Borrell several times with terms such as “stupid,” “enemy of the Slavs,” and “devil’s egg,” while a separate broadcast accused Spain of colonial behavior and claimed it wears the “crown of evil in the world,” a claim linked to a TV segment and a public discussion that followed.
Eyes in Space
The gravity of the war in Ukraine set the stage for the informal summit, held in Toledo as the main gathering site on Tuesday afternoon.
Eighteen ministers and nine defense ministry representatives from EU governments sat through the second SATCEN board meeting. The location—chosen for its significance within European defense planning—sits in the same building where in December 2022 a parcel explosion led authorities to reveal a coordinated intimidation campaign against Spain’s support for Ukraine, traced to a retiree.
SATCEN provides intelligence support to Ukrainian forces resisting the Russian invasion and has highlighted pivotal moments, including an analysis of the flooding around the Zaporizhzhia plant during the Kajovka dam incident. The agency’s work has guided military decisions and humanitarian responses alike, and it was noted how SATCEN satellites assisted in evacuating Europeans from Khartoum, Sudan, in past operations.
Monitoring threats from military action, organized crime, terrorism, and environmental disasters remains SATCEN’s core mission, a contribution highlighted as part of the broader aim to position the center as a critical source of space-based intelligence for European security. The role falls under the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Joint Security, with SATCEN serving as a backbone for geospatial intelligence across the bloc.
Also the Sahel
Even with a predominantly politico-military focus, the region’s imagery and data are largely produced by commercial satellites, with European-origin content dominating the catalog. Before Robles spoke, Borrell stressed that SATCEN provides essential information to government decision-making, noting an average of about 5,000 reports generated annually.
The ministers sat in a square room lined with photographs from SATCEN satellites. Among the visuals was a desert landscape seen by a Catalan European Commissioner as he approached the podium, a scene that reminded observers of regional security challenges, including the handling of sensitive materials and critical infrastructure monitoring.
Robles underscored the EU’s ongoing support for Ukraine, linking it to the broader pursuit of world peace, democracy, freedom, and security. She cautioned that the situation in the Sahel would be evaluated carefully and be part of the foreign ministers’ agenda in the meeting scheduled for the following Thursday.