€450 million and hundreds of thousands of pieces of ammunition: how much did Greece’s military aid to Ukraine cost?

Since 2022, Greece has transferred significant amounts of weapons and ammunition to Ukrainehowever, behind the dry numbers lies another question: how much of this help changed the country’s own defense configuration and what it ultimately cost the Greek army.

The reason to return to this topic again was the publication Iskrabased on a study of the Ukrainian military portal Militarnyi. The authors estimate the total scale of direct and indirect supplies to amount to about €350–450 million. At the same time Ukraine Support Tracker of the Kiel Institutewhich primarily counts government bilateral commitments, gives a significantly lower figure. The reason for the discrepancy is different calculation methods.

What is confirmed by open sources

Militarnyi himself emphasizes that his table of direct confirmed deliveries includes 20,000 machine guns, 815 RPG-18, 40 BMP-1, 24 Sea Sparrow and an unspecified number of Crotale. The authors do not separately consider artillery systems and ammunition exported through the Czech Republic to be a direct transfer to Ukraine.

The Athens News has been following this story since the beginning. Back in March 2022, we talked in detail about what weapons did Greece send to Ukraine and where did 20,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles come from?.

BMP-1 and Marder: replacement turned out to be more difficult

The official formula was simple. Greek Ministry of National Defense announced the transfer to Ukraine 40 BMP-1which Germany had to replace with the same number of Marder. Back in the summer of 2022, the Minister of Defense emphasized that BMP-1s would be shipped only after replacement equipment arrived.

However, the actual picture turned out to be less straightforward. Already at the beginning of 2023, questions arose in parliament about delays in Marder deliveries. In the official the Ministry of Defense’s response to a parliamentary inquiry the government insisted there was no operational gap. But by that time, Marder deliveries had not yet been fully completed.

Equally important is that the Marder did not become a direct replacement for the BMP-1 in the same positions. BMP-1s were also withdrawn from the islands of the Eastern Aegean Sea, while the new German vehicles were decided to be concentrated primarily in Thrace. Therefore, the formula “40 given – 40 received” does not reflect changes in the real geography of defense.

The BMP-1s themselves were indeed an age-old vehicle, but that doesn’t mean the Marders were a radically superior replacement. BMP-1s have been built into island defenses for decades: they had a low silhouette, were well mastered by crews and were intended, among other things, to counter a possible landing. Therefore, the withdrawal of such equipment changed the combat structure of specific units, even with the subsequent receipt of a different type of armored vehicle.

Deliveries continued later

In September 2025, Athens News wrote about the transfer through the Czech Republic 60 M110A2 self-propelled howitzers and approximately 150,000 203 mm ammunition. Moreover, part of these reserves was also removed from positions on the eastern islands of the Aegean Sea.

In July 2026, reports appeared about the transfer of part of the reserves to Ukraine through the United States and France VT-1 Crotale and Sea Sparrow. The Greek Ministry of Defense did not publish an official complete list of these supplies.

At the same time, Athens also drew red lines. In 2025, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias opposed the transfer to Ukraine Patriot and Mirage 2000-5since such a transfer could create a much more serious gap in the country’s own defense system.

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