Greece cannot offer Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine

Greece cannot offer Ukraine air defence systems such as Patriot or S-300, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said. This was reported by Reuters on 26 April.

The Greek prime minister said this while responding to demands from Greece's EU and NATO allies to provide Ukraine with more military aid.

As a consequence of increased air attacks on Ukraine, EU governments are under pressure to supply Ukraine with more air defence systems. This pressure is particularly felt by Greece and Spain, which have such systems in service.

Greece is not going to send S-300 or Patriot to Ukraine," Mitsotakis told Skai TV.

EU ministers on Monday said they were urgently studying how to provide Ukraine with more air defence equipment. So far the study has stopped at promises to provide Patriot systems.

We have explained why we cannot do so. These systems are critical to our deterrence capability," Mitsotakis said.

The country's defence is a very important issue for Greece, given the current tensions with Turkey.

Earlier, Greece sent several thousand missiles, explosives, vehicles and anti-tank missiles to Ukraine.

Today, 26 April, the US will host an online meeting of aid providers to Ukraine. It is noted that this will happen in connection with the fact that a few days ago the US Parliament approved a package of assistance to Ukraine.

Earlier Socialportal reported that during the visit of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Odessa, Russian troops shelled the city.

Already at the very end we heard the sound of sirens and explosions, which were very close to us. We did not have time to escape to a protected place, it is a very impressive experience," Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at the time.

Greek media wrote that the explosion then took place 150 metres away from the delegation.