“We were asked and we explained why we cannot do it,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Skai TV on Thursday evening, according to Reuters. According to him, Athens cannot supply the S-300 or Patriot systems, which are “key to our deterrence capability”.
According to the newspaper, the Spanish Ministry of Defense also rules out handing over complete systems to Kiev, but will provide an unspecified number of missiles, which Ukraine is also interested in.
Defense policy is a sensitive topic for the conservative Mitsotakis government not only because of Russian aggression in Ukraine, but also in the context of strained Greek relations with Turkey.
Both Mitsotakis and his Spanish colleague Pedro Sánchez were called on by other European leaders at the EU summit last week to hand over the systems to Ukraine, according to Financial Times sources. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the remote summit for the quick delivery of these systems, which he says Ukraine needs at least seven as soon as possible.
Greece has already provided Kiev with a number of rockets, anti-tank missiles, armored vehicles and ammunition in the past. Spain has supplied the Ukrainian army with Hawk, Mistral and Aspide anti-aircraft missiles, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, ten Leopard 2A4 tanks, armored cars and patrol boats as part of dozens of deliveries since the beginning of the war.
