USA will give Greece air defense "Patriot" instead of sending the S-300 to Ukraine

The United States wants to help the Ukrainian air defense system by supplying it with Russian S-300 systems, which belong to European countries, including Greece. In return, the Americans promise the Greeks their own Patriot air defense system.

“Greece is expected to receive an additional financial assistance package in the form of a loan (or loan guarantees) from the US government worth more than 2 billion. They will be used to upgrade weapons systems, and in this context, discussions are already underway on providing Ukraine with S-300s, which will be replaced by Patriot air defense systems,” journalist Lena Argyri said on air. ertnews.

The United States is trying to impose its own weapons on all countries dependent on them, and first of all, to get rid of the Greek-owned S-300 air defense systems in order to transfer them to Ukraine, in view of the turbulent events that we will see in the near future.

With Ukraine’s imminent counterstrike against Russian forces, Greek S-300 missiles have been put at stake, for which, no doubt, the question of spare parts and support will soon arise due to the Russian embargo.

According to the Greek journalist, the United States is pressuring Greece to provide military assistance to Kiev and send to Ukraine its Russian-made S-300 air defense system, which is currently in service with the Greek Armed Forces.

The Greek side claims it has already helped Ukraine, but is unwilling to send the S-300s and wants tangible evidence of their exchange for upgraded Patriot systems within a reasonable time frame.

The reason is that the last exchange of Soviet BMP-1s for German Marders was never completed, despite loud statements from Berlin and Washington. Greece, in the end, sent its equipment to Ukraine, but received in return only part of the German equipment, for which machine guns and spare parts were never delivered. Nevertheless, the Greek government made a statement that it refuses to receive part of the Marder BMP in favor of Ukraine.

This allowed the Mitsotakis government to announce a partial demilitarization of the Aegean islands. This solution, also linked to help Turkey after a catastrophic earthquake significantly improved relations between the two countrieswhich in recent years have balanced on the brink of war.

Recall that on February 23, 2023, the Prime Minister of Greece declared that Greece would not 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. However, judging by the new information, this exchange will take place. The question now is only whether this will happen before or after the delivery of the Patriot air defense system.

In the photo, the Chief of the General Staff of the Greek Armed Forces Konstantinos Floros (left) gets acquainted with the 5th generation F-35 fighter at Lockheed Martin during his visit to the United States in July 2022.

It is worth noting that the United States recently offered Greece supplies of F-35 aircraft in installmentsand now there is clearly a bargaining going on, in which the supply of the latest aircraft will be tied to the abandonment of the S-300.

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