War in Ukraine: Greece's plans and Russia's anger

Greece will decommission 32 old F-16 Block-30s and transfer them to Ukraine.

Al Jazeera, citing sources, tellsthat the Greek Air Force plans to upgrade 82 F-16 fighters to Block-70 and buy 24 fourth-generation Rafale fighters from France. A US congressional committee also authorized Greece to buy up to 40 fifth-generation F-35 multirole fighters.

According to sources, Greece believes that it would be better to hand these planes back to the US, where they would be modernized and handed over to Kyiv.. However, according to a Greek Air Force spokesman, “the sale of 32 F-16s… would create a major gap in the country's air force… There needs to be a quorum of around 200 aircraft, which is impossible to achieve with more modern and expensive fighters.”

One report said Kyiv could expect 60 decommissioned F-16s from Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. Ukraine has said it needs about 150; Greece's 32 jets could go some way toward closing the gap.

Russia's anger is growing as Greece prepares a military deal with Ukraine. Greece's concern for its own security has led it to back Ukraine after a full-scale Russian invasion.

March 6 Russia launched a rocket on the Ukrainian port of Odessa, which exploded about 400 meters from where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing to tour the city with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The Greek prime minister later told reporters:

“As we were getting into our cars, we heard a big explosion. We were all worried, especially considering we were in the open with no cover. It was pretty wild.”

Many Western leaders have visited Ukraine, but this was the only case when there was a real threat to their lives and safety. Analysts in Athens do not believe it was an accident. Konstantinos Filis, a professor of international relations who directs the Institute of Global Affairs at the American College of Greece, said:

“It was a message to Greece, a message to the Russophile part of Greek society.”

The number of Russophile population is sharply declining, he notes. Before the full-scale war in Ukraine, about 70% of Greeks had a favorable view of Russia. After the invasion in 2022, that figure dropped to 50%, and last year to 30%, according to the Athens-based think tank Dianeosis. Professor Phillips says:

“The Russians are very annoyed with the Greeks. Greece has been very clear in its support of Ukraine from the very beginning.”

Just three days after the war began, Greece announced it was sending two C-130 planes to Ukraine with rifles, ammunition and grenades. Among them, the German newspaper Bild reported, were 20,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles confiscated by Greece in 2013 en route to Libya, which is subject to a UN arms embargo.

Greece's initial support for Ukraine prompted the Russian embassy in Athens to call on “high-ranking politicians” to “come to their senses” and “stop anti-Russian propaganda.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Greece's decision to send weapons to Ukraine “deeply mistaken” and “criminal,” warning that “the weapons will ultimately be directed against civilians, including Greeks.” referring to the 150,000 ethnic Greek Ukrainians who then lived mainly in the besieged cities of Mariupol and Odessa.

Officially Greece has supplied Ukraine with an additional 20,000 155mm artillery shells, Stinger missiles and 40 Soviet-era BMP-1 armored personnel carriers. It is currently preparing to send four huge transformers that convert the high-voltage direct current generated by power plants into the lower-voltage alternating current used in local distribution networks that feed households.

Odessa needs them especially because seven of the nine transformers surrounding the city were knocked out by Russian strikes, part of the Kremlin's aggressive strategy to cripple Ukraine's defense industry and economy. Ukraine is also reportedly interested in power generators currently sitting idle at coal-fired power plants decommissioned by Greece.

Unofficially Greece has sent more direct military aid to Ukraine, including self-propelled guns, Some officials estimate the total cost of aid at $300 million over two years, a figure that could rise sharply.

Greece is also a conduit for military equipment supplies to third parties. The northern port of Alexandroupolis has a direct rail link to Odessa via Romania or via Lviv, Poland, and the United States has established its own military logistics pier in the Greek port after signing a defense cooperation agreement with Greece in 2019.

Military equipment could reach Ukraine within 24 hours of being unloaded in Alexandroupoli. Now that the Turkish Bosphorus Strait, the entrance to the Black Sea, is closed to all military shipping, Alexandroupolis is becoming one of the fastest routes to Ukraine.

Russia has cited its shared Orthodoxy with Greece and its assistance in Greece's 1821 war of independence against the Ottoman Empire, but these cultural and historical ties are undermined by Russia's behavior toward Ukraine, which Greece compares to that of neighboring Turkey. Mitsotakis expressed his government's support for Ukraine in Odessa:

“Greece… has faced belligerence in the past. Greece's involvement in European support for Ukraine requires no further explanation.”

Greece has one battery of Russian-made S-300 long-range air defense missile systems based in Crete, and government sources said the country had offered to send it to Ukraine if the US replaced it with a battery of Patriot missiles.

“Greece wants an agreement… based on military budget surpluses – materials that need to be sold or destroyed before they expire,” the diplomatic source said. “We don't want a separate budget line for Ukraine.”

Greece and Ukraine are currently negotiating a 10-year aid agreement modeled on agreements signed by many other NATO members.

A recent survey conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations in 15 European countries found that 55% of Greeks oppose increased defense spending for Ukraine, which is in line with the majority of Europeans. However, in contrast, roughly the same number of Greeks also oppose the supply of more weapons to Ukraine.

Although Greece spends more on defense than most NATO countries (last year it devoted 3.7 percent of its gross domestic product to the military), concerns about its own security prevent it from being more generous.

Editor's note:

There are a couple of nuances to this statement that Al Jazeera failed to mention.

Firstly No one will transfer anything to anyone until Greece receives new Rafale aircraft from France and F35 from the US. And this will not happen before 26-35.
We reported this on April 8, 2024 in a publication about reform plan “Agenda 2030”which for BBC Greece “provides that by 2030 they will have 200 modern 4th and 5th generation aircraft, with the gradual decommissioning of 3rd and 4th generation aircraft,” according to the Minister of National Defense Nikolaos Dendiasa.

Second, Patriot is already in short supply, and no one in Greece has them now he won't give it up for free. And the new division of this system already costs about 3 billion. In Greece there are only 2 of them for the whole country and the second for rent from the Saudis and judging by everything, they won't be returned anytime soon.

Third: Phyllis is lying, but you can understand him, he works in an American college and is paid by Americans. Greeks still largely support Russia and don't really believe the propaganda. And this factor cannot be changed quickly. The positive attitude towards Russia in the Greeks has been hammered into the subconscious over the last 200 years. Neither the Metaxas reaction nor the junta nor the propaganda of recent years could destroy it.

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