Russia is angry over Greece’s preparation of military offer with Ukraine. Russia-Ukraine conflict information

Athens, Greece – On March 6, Russia fired a missile at the Ukrainian port of Odessa, which exploded about 400 meters (1,300 ft) from where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing to visit the city with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Were.

Mitsotakis advised reporters, “As we were getting into our cars, we heard a big explosion.” “We were all worried, especially if you consider that we were in an open space without any cover. It was quite cruel.”

Several Western leaders have visited Zelensky, but this was the only time there was a credible ultimatum for his presence and security. Analysts in Athens do not consider it a hit.

“It was a message to Greece, a message to the Russophilic part of Greek society,” said Konstantinos Filis, an instructor of global members of the family who directs the Institute of World Affairs at the American School of Greece.

That Russophilic public is being dramatically ruined.

According to the Athens-based think tank Dionesis, about 70 percent of Greeks had a positive view of Russia before the all-out war in Ukraine. This dropped to 50 percent after the 2022 attack and to 30 percent the year after.

“The Russians are very angry with the Greeks,” Phyllis told Al Jazeera. “Greece has clearly supported Ukraine from the beginning.”

Just three days after the war began, Greece announced it was sending two C-130 aircraft carrying rifles, ammunition and grenades to Ukraine. Germany’s Bild newspaper clarified that they had included 20,000 Kalashnikov rifles that Greece had seized in 2013 en route to Libya, which is under the joint country’s embargo.

Greece’s initial aid to Ukraine led the Russian Embassy in Athens to call on “very senior politicians” to “come to their senses” and “stop anti-Russian propaganda”.

Russian Diaspora Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zacharova described Greece’s decision to send guns to Ukraine as “extremely wrong” and “criminal”, giving the ultimatum that “in the end, weapons will be thrown at civilians, including Greeks,” with ties to the 150,000 ethnic group. The Greek Ukrainians who followed originally lived in the besieged cities of Mariupol and Odessa.

Formally, Greece has equipped Ukraine with an additional 20,000 155 mm artillery shells, Stinger missiles and 40 Soviet-era BMP-1 armored team personnel carriers. It has recently been preparing to send four large transformers that convert high voltage DC current produced through power stations to lower legacy AC voltage on the local distribution grid that provides households.

Odessa, in particular, wants seven of the nine transformers in the city destroyed because of Russian moves – part of the Kremlin’s competitive method of shutting down Ukraine’s defense trade and economy.

Greece has reportedly shut down power turbines at coal-fired power stations in Ukraine.

Greece could also be a vehicle for third party conflict.

Its northern port of Alexandroupolis has a quick rail link with Odessa via Romania or via Lviv, Poland, and since the signing of the 2019 defense cooperation pledge with Greece the US has developed its own military logistics pier at the Greek port. Have done.

Military equipment can reach Ukraine within 24 hours of unloading in Alexandroupolis. Now that Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait, the gateway to the Dal Sea, is closed to all military visitors, that makes Alexandroupolis one of the fastest routes to Ukraine.

‘We can offer anti-aircraft guns and S-300 air defense system’

Russia has invoked its shared conservatism with Greece and its assistance in the Greek struggle for self-rule against the Ottoman Empire in 1821, although those cultural and ancient similarities have been overshadowed through Russian behavior against Ukraine, Which Greece compares with the behavior of its neighbor Turkey. ,

Mitsotakis expressed his executive’s support for Ukraine in those phrases in Odessa.

“Greece…has faced war in the past,” he said. “Greece’s involvement in European support for Ukraine needs no further explanation.”

Greece is trying to persuade Turkey to agree to maritime barriers within the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean seas in accordance with the UN Maritime Regulation, which Turkey has not signed. Turkey disputes that Greece has a continental shelf over the islands and also disputes Greek independence over its eastern Aegean islands.

Analysts said non-belligerence against neighbors is enshrined in the UN Constitution, and Athens needs to enforce it in Ukraine.

Unofficially, Greece has sent even more direct military aid to Ukraine, including self-propelled weapons, with some officials putting the total cost of aid in the range of $300 million over two years. That figure could increase rapidly.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has prompted additional military transfers, offering $200 million in foreign military financing to Greece in a letter to Mitsotakis in January.

“The government is trying to offer things that can be changed,” a diplomatic source advised Al Jazeera. “Theoretically, we can offer anti-aircraft guns and the S-300 air defense system.”

Greece has a Russian-made S-300 long-range air defense battery deployed on Crete, and executive sources said it has announced it will send it to Ukraine if the United States will replace it with a Patriot missile battery. .

Greece and Ukraine are negotiating a 10-year assistance pledge, with pledges recently signed by several other NATO members.

“Greece wants an agreement… based on military budget surpluses – materials you have to sell or destroy before their use-by date,” the diplomatic source said. “We don’t want a separate Ukraine budget line.”

Community opinion divided

A recent survey of 15 European countries by the Council of the European Union on foreign family members showed that 55 percent of Greeks disapprove of higher defense spending for Ukraine, in line with most Europeans.

On the other hand, unlike most Europeans, a similar group of Greeks also opposes sending additional guns to Ukraine.

Even though Greece outperforms most NATO countries on defense – it devotes 3.7% of its military product most years to its military – concerns for its own security prevent it from being more generous.

But Ukraine is looking for additional ones.

Greece is set to decommission 32 used F-16 Cancel-30 fighters as it has upgraded 82 F-16s to Cancel-70 and acquired 24 fourth-generation Rafale warplanes from France.

A committee of the US Congress has also approved Greece’s purchase of 40 fifth-generation F-35 multirole jets. Ukraine has unfairly classified some of them.

A record says Ukraine can expect 60 decommissioned F-16s from Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. Ukraine has said it wants about 150. Greece’s 32 jets will go a long way against closing the distance.

According to sources told Al Jazeera, Greece’s most popular component of transferring those jets is to sell them back to the United States, which can refurbish them and fly them directly to Kiev.

Some military experts are reluctant to commit to a gift of dozens of fighter planes, saying the security issues that underlie Greek pro-Ukraine policy prohibit it.

“Unfortunately, because of our neighbours, we are obliged to have very powerful armed forces,” a wind drive engineer told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

“The sale of 32 F-16s… will open a huge hole in the Air Force. …A quorum of approximately 200 aircraft would have to be met, which cannot be done with more modern and expensive fighter aircraft.”