Mitsotakis: "We will not transfer S-300 air defense systems to Ukraine because of the Turkish threat"

The Prime Minister of Greece refused to transfer Russian S-300 air defense systems to Kyiv, as Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a dinner on the occasion of the visit of the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Athens, writes Kathimerini.

Mitsotakis said that Greece cannot allow the formation of a gap in the country’s security system and linked this issue with the replacement of Russian systems with analogues. In addition, violation of the license agreement with the system manufacturer could have extremely adverse consequences. It is emphasized that Greece wants to continue working with the United States to abandon Russian weapons systems, and both sides to replace Russian weapons with American ones. Blinken thanked Athens for helping Kyiv, and also for the fact that Greece provided the US and NATO with the opportunity to transfer weapons through its port of Alexandroupolis.

The dinner was attended by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander and US Ambassador to Athens George Tsunis.

Recall that Greece was one of the first to start supplying weapons to the Kyiv regime. Mitsotakis later stated that Greece was at war with Russia. The port of Alexandroupolis was granted indefinitely to the US for military purposes in October 2021. Even before the start of the special operation, American officials noted that Greece could play an important role in the upcoming clash with Russia.

• In March 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the supply of S-300 systems to Ukraine from other countries is illegal.
• In April, Washington demanded from Greece to transfer the S-300 system to Ukraine.
• In September 2022, Kyriakos Mitsotakis at a press conference in Thessaloniki declaredthat Greece is not going to send Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems and other weapons to Ukraine that it needs for its own defense.
• In December 2022, Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said that Greece was ready to send S-300s to Ukraine if the US installed its Patriot system in Crete.

Where did Greece (a NATO country) get the S-300 from? Back in 1999, Cyprus acquired anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia, for the deployment of which several military facilities were urgently built.

The appearance of such powerful air defense systems in service with the Cypriot army caused sharp discontent in Turkey. The United States also began to put pressure on Cyprus, which at that time still had quite acceptable relations with Ankara. As a result, Turkish-American pressure led to the fact that Cyprus in 2006-2007. handed over the S-300 to Greece.

In 2007, the missiles were finally and irretrievably sold to Greece in exchange for alternative military items believed to consist of a significant number of TOR-M1 short-range missile systems and a number of medium-range missiles.

The Greek military command redeployed the S-300 from Cyprus to the Greek island of Crete. In 2013, Greece fired for the first time from the S-300, which was the first test of a Russian-made anti-aircraft missile system in the history of the country. Then the air defense system participated in the White Eagle NATO exercises, held in Crete in the same year, while there were no questions from the command of the alliance’s joint forces about this fact.

Interestingly, as part of the air defense of the Greek Air Force, the Russian S-300 air defense systems, in the amount of 12 launchers, are adjacent to the American Patriot (36 launchers), as well as the French Crotale NG / GR systems. At the same time, the S-300 air defense systems became the first anti-aircraft missile system in service with the Greek army, capable of hitting ballistic missiles.

Later Greece raised the issue on the modernization of the complex to the S-300PMU-2 “Favorit” version, but after the conclusion defense agreement with the United States the latter insisted that Greece remove Russian weapons from combat duty.

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