No arms for Kyiv at expense of Greek defense
Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos stressed on Wednesday that Greece will not send any weapons to Ukraine if it cannot ensure that they will be replaced.
“We are not going to send weapons for which we have not taken care of their replacement,” he said in a briefing of the competent parliamentary committee on the issue of defense assistance to Ukraine.
“We will not provide anti-aircraft missiles from our islands or anti-ship missiles, no matter how much they ask us to do so, because we face a real threat,” Panagiotopoulos said, referring to the threat Greece faces from Turkey in the Aegean.
“We will not do anything that will weaken the country’s defenses,” he emphatically declared in response to a question from SYRIZA MP Theodore Dritsas as to whether Greece will send other weapons.
Panagiotopoulos said, “Greece will not be sending the S-300 weapons system.”
“What we need, what is useful, and mainly operationally active, we do not intend to release,” he said.
He also referred to the request for the disclosure of information related to the shipment of equipment to Ukraine but also to the possibility that such information be made known by military sources.
“I will not do such a thing,” he said.
“Such information should not be made public, in any direction, or done lightly,” the minister said, referring to the problem of leaking such information.
Panagiotopoulos also added that he will raise the issue of leaks with the Armed Forces, while expressing the wish that all those involved in national defense will behave responsibly so that not all information is accessible to anyone.
“It is a problem. Everyone is talking here. Spying no longer makes sense. They discuss it in the cafe. Who? Officers? Lieutenants? This is a point of concern,” he added.
