Greece and Spain are under “intense pressure” from EU and NATO allies to provide air defense systems to Ukraine, as Kiev prepared to ask for more help at a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers on Monday, according to a report by Financial Times– however, Greek military sources emphasize, once again (as the specific scenarios recur frequently), that any discussion or proposal of this type should presuppose the immediate replacement of any weapon systems by equivalent or superior systems of Western origin.
The publication also commented, when asked about it, the government representative, Pavlos Marinakis, saying that there is not going to be any move that will endanger the air defense of the country.
Kiev made an urgent appeal this month to Western allies for seven more US Patriot-class air defense systems and the Russian/Soviet S-300, as Russia steps up its air and missile attacks against the country’s cities and energy infrastructure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote in X on Sunday that “the Patriot they can only be called air defense systems if they work and save lives instead of sitting idle somewhere in storage bases.”
According to the publication of FT, other EU leaders meeting in Brussels last week had personally asked the two countries’ prime ministers, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Pedro Sanchez, to send some of their systems to Ukraine. Spain has, among other things, systems Patriot, while Greece has in its arsenal and Patriot and S-300, which had been acquired in the context of the Cyprus crisis S-300, in the late 1990s (the then Cypriot government had decided to install arrays of Russian air defense systems on its territory, resulting in a strong reaction and threats from Turkey – eventually the S-300 were transferred to Greece and settled in Crete).
As reported by FT, officials say less pressure is on Poland and Romania, which also have them Patriot, to consider granting them to Ukraine, which currently has at least three systems Patriot, including one sent by the US and two from Germany.
Kiev also uses large numbers of Russian/ex-Soviet systems such as S-300 and the older ones S-200 (including some upgraded/modified versions of them). Also, the US aid package approved on Saturday by the House of Representatives is expected to include air defense systems.
As they write Financial Times, the defense ministries of Greece and Spain declined to comment, while pressure to grant the systems is expected to intensify at a meeting of ministers in Luxembourg on Monday, officials said. Kiev seems to be more interested in the Greeks S-300– it is recalled that there have been repeated relevant reports and publications regarding the possibility of granting systems of Russian origin (see here what Russian systems the Greek Armed Forces have).
Our country has in the past carried out shipments/sales of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine (including 40 BMP-1, in exchange for an equal number of German Marders, and old guns – in general material that is considered non-operationally necessary) – however, in all cases competent sources emphasized that, regardless of requests, there is no way to grant anything that would weaken the country’s defense armor, and that, as mentioned above, any discussion or proposal for such a thing, it would have to presuppose their replacement by systems of western origin that will be immediately put into service, so that there are no “gaps”.
Tags: Pressure Greece Spain grant air defense systems Ukraine
