Iconomu: "Why the government did not announce the Mitsotaki-Scholz agreement on armored vehicles for Ukraine"

The reasons why the Greek side did not announce an agreement with Germany to send armored vehicles to Ukraine and replace them with German ones were explained by government spokesman Yannis Ikonomou after the reaction of the opposition.

“When the German armored vehicles arrive, we will announce it”…

Speaking to SKAI TV, Mr. Ikonomu noted that the agreement to send armored vehicles to Ukraine was concluded after consultations between Greek and German specialists, and asked: “Is there a way to keep these things secret? When the new ones come in and the old ones leave, an announcement will be made,” he added.

Giannis Ikonomou specified that this agreement would cost Greece absolutely nothing and that the details would be announced by the Ministry of Defense within the next month and a half.

Greece’s decision to send obsolete armored vehicles to Ukraine is part of the country’s stance to provide significant support to Ukraine, a government spokesman said. He noted that this decision is in line with both the decision of the ΚΥΣΕΑ and what all EU states are doing.

Why the BMP-1s sent by Greece to Ukraine are important for Kyiv – how the agreement was concluded with Germany

He noted that everything “not needed by the Greek armed forces is being sent to Ukraine, and we are replacing everything outdated with more modern weapons.” These, he said, are armored personnel carriers that Greece received in 1992 and are essentially dormant, and Germany will replace them with more modern ones.

“First, the most modern ones will come, and only then [в Украину] the old ones will leave,” a government spokesman said and added that “we will not only not lose them, but we will also get more modern ones for free.”

(Editor’s note. In fact, the supply of this equipment pay USA, not Germany, under the program lend-leaseadopted last month.)

As we reported earlier, information about sending heavy combat technology from Greece to Ukraine came as a surprise to the opposition and caused a stormy scandal in parliament.

Even Pentagon officials did not know about the government’s decision to send, in agreement with Germany, BMP 1 to Ukraine, the publication reports. Efsin. After the statements of the German chancellor, the Ministry of National Defense sounded the alarm: the opposition parties demand immediate explanations, while the choice is openly questioned, based on their current operational situation.

“Once I put away what I use, it becomes an operational vacuum,” said Greek Army General and former Chief of the General Staff Christos Christodoulou, speaking on the +News show about the German Chancellor’s announcement that Greece would provide armored fighting vehicles such as BMP-1 to be sent to Ukraine.

He stressed that the government’s procedure was wrong, since if the armored vehicles to be sent were found to be useless, they should have been decommissioned. In any other case, these infantry fighting vehicles remain indispensable for the Greek army.

According to government sources, the tanks sent will be replaced by an equal number of German-made Marder a-5 armored vehicles.

Mr. Christodoulou explained that the new Marder combat vehicles that will be delivered will make it difficult to interface with existing Greek systems, and this will cause a number of problems. “This replacement does not make any sense, no matter how much equipment you have,” concluded Mr. Christodoulou, referring to the new combat vehicles that Greece will receive.

Soviet BMP-1 and German Marder

By the message “EfSin.” Soviet-made BMP-1s were purchased in the same Germany after an agreement between Konstantinos Mitsotakis and Helmut Kohl in 1993 and went to the FRG from the GDR. The first 164 infantry fighting vehicles were received in 1994 and were manufactured in 1966-76, and the remaining 337 (produced in 1979-83) arrived in 1995. To date, 155 vehicles are in service with the Greek army (150 were used in the war in Iraq, 195 were withdrawn in November 2014 and 100 are under concession or sale negotiations with Egypt since 2017), they are in parts of Evros and on the islands, with 130 considered active.

Marders were produced from 1988 to 2011, the last models (1A5) were built ten years ago. According to the military, although they are also outdated, they are considered more advanced than the BMP-1 and provide better protection for the military.

burning question

Of particular interest is Verikios municipality report on ieidiseis.gr. An experienced author notes that the Marders have a 20×139 mm cannon and are produced only by German companies Nexter and Reinmentall. That is, in order to take advantage of the proposed combat vehicles, Greece must bypass PYRKAL (Greek Defense Systems) and become a customer of these German companies! But, according to market research, both German manufacturers have long stopped the production line of Marder 29x139mm rockets, and their stocks in warehouses are low.

Opposition parties

SYRIZA-PS calls for immediate information about the weapons that it has sent and will send to Ukraine, “as all European governments do, respecting their citizens.”

“The government and the competent Ministry of Defense must immediately provide clarifications both on the content of this decision and on the details of the Greek-German agreement,” the KKE said in a statement.

PASOK – MOBILE has requested full details from the government.

“Inform the Greek people about these unthinkable, dangerous and unacceptable decisions” calls for MERA 25.

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