Defense Minister N. Dendias denied a newspaper report that Greece was sending weapons to Ukraine by selling them, saying that the country does not transfer weapons to Ukrainian forces, but to third countries, and then what they do with them is their own question.
However, according to a newspaper report, Greece is sending military aid – unknown types of ammunition or weapons – to war-torn Ukraine from Thessaloniki and via Romania! The message states that there are 250 containers and that two days ago, on Tuesday 14/05, the first of them left the station in Kato Gefira, with the first destination being Romania.
In particular, before Easter, negotiations began at the port of Thessaloniki to allocate space for the transshipment of weapons and ammunition, but they ran into an unforeseen factor: the reaction of workers, who reportedly raised the issue of risk. At that time, the company received a double “no” to transport dangerous cargo from employees of the port of Thessaloniki and Hellenic Train, after workers blocked transshipment at the port.
Eventually another solution was found and the ammunition was transported – in small convoys of trucks, always accompanied by police – to Kato Gefira behind Agios Athanasios in the municipality of Chalcedon, in an area where there is an industrial park (1,000 acres) and railway lines.
The publication Efimerida ton Sindakton reports that the Greek railway company Hellenic Train has refused to transport weapons for Ukraine, Romanian trains and crews will carry the cargo, and loading will take place outside of Thessaloniki due to the resistance of the workers of the Thessaloniki port. “The ammunition must be delivered to American troops, who transfer it into Romanian cars, since the next stop for this ammunition is Romania, and Hellenic Train refused to provide its own. After the railway accident in Tempi, there is no need to explain the reasons for the failure. From there, weapons and ammunition will be transported to Ukraine under the control of American troops.”
Yesterday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken from Kyiv spoke about the hasty transfer of military equipment to the Ukrainian front. The government must answer what kind of weapons or ammunition it is sending to Ukraine and whether these are “serious things” to be done, i.e. without passing through parliament.
“There are no 250 containers and there are no deliveries from Greece to Ukraine. There are agreements signed by our country, and it is moving within their framework. Cultivating impressions with the help of conspiracies is too much. Yesterday one of the representatives of the opposition contacted me, and I told him how many containers and where. Greece does not supply anything to Ukraine, and what others do with the materials we send them is their own business.”, – answered Nikos Dendias. (Weapons are not just materials. Editor’s note.)
The minister insists that Greece does not supply materials directly to Ukraine and talks about obsolete materials (remember, we are talking about weapons and ammunition) that it sends to the Czech Republic and the United States, and the destruction of which alone will cost 100 million euros.
Addressing the opposition, he even said: we cannot publicly discuss the country’s armament issues.
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