After a weekend in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, Volodymyr Zelensky continues his tour of Europe and landed in Athens on Monday August 21 for an official visit. The services of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that the Ukrainian leader will attend an informal dinner with leaders from the European Union (EU) and the Balkans.
Greece has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine since the Russian invasion: Athens has provided Kyiv with humanitarian aid and weapons, including infantry fighting vehicles, Kalashnikov assault rifles and ammunition.
Ukraine on Friday welcomed the United States’ decision to let Denmark and the Netherlands send it F-16 fighter jets once Ukrainian pilots are trained. That training, by a coalition of 11 countries, has begun, and officials said they hope the pilots will be ready by early 2024.
The head of the Greek executive meets on Monday and Tuesday with the leaders of the Balkans, and in this context organizes Monday evening an informal dinner in the presence of the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the head of the European Council Charles Michel.
Also announced are the presidents of Serbia, Moldova, Montenegro and Romania, the prime ministers of Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and Croatia, and the chair of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia -Herzegovina, detailed the office of Mr. Mitsotakis in a press release. The meeting marks the 20th anniversary of a summit in Thessaloniki which confirmed the European perspective of the Western Balkan states.
Although a traditional ally of Moscow, against a backdrop of shared Orthodox Christian faith, Athens unequivocally condemned, under Mr. Mitsotakis, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Greece expelled a dozen members of Russian diplomatic and consular missions in 2022 and hosts thousands of Ukrainians and their families.
Last April, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov traveled to Athens to meet his counterpart at the time. He then declared that kyiv would ask Athens for help after the war to clear the Sea of ??Azov and develop the country’s naval forces. Greece has offered to rebuild the maternity hospital bombed in 2022 in Mariupol, a city currently occupied by Russian forces. The Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Odessa have had large populations of Greek origin for centuries.
