Greece refuses to provide Ukraine with Patriot systems

Despite pressure from the European Union and NATO, Greece will not be sending Ukraine Patriot or S-300 air defense systems, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on April 25, as reported by the Financial Times, Report informs, citing The New Voice of Ukraine.

“Greece has supported Ukraine in various ways with defense materials,” said Mitsotakis.

“But we have said from the first moment that we cannot dispose of weapon systems, which are critical to our deterrent capability.”

He acknowledged that Ukraine's other partners had asked Greece for additional air defense systems for Kyiv and said Greece had good reasons to refuse.

EU leaders had urged the leaders of Spain and Greece at the summit in Brussels last week to transfer some of their air defense systems to Ukraine, FT previously reported. Media reports on April 23 suggested that Athens would transfer a Patriot battery to Kyiv “under U.S. guarantees.”

On April 13, Germany announced that it would provide Ukraine with an additional Patriot battery to repel Russian airstrikes.

On April 23, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine and the United States are negotiating to provide the Armed Forces of Ukraine with four Patriot systems from several countries.