ATHENA, Feb 14 Greece provides ammunition as part of assistance to Ukraine and 20 BMP-1 armored vehicles and will continue to support, Defense Secretary Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos said at the Contact Group Conference on Ukraine, which was organized at the initiative of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The conference was attended by ministers and other high-ranking officials from 54 countries, the Greek Defense Ministry said, discussing current developments in Ukraine, while emphasizing the need for the rapid delivery of defense equipment, training of Ukrainian armed forces and cooperation between the defense industry to fill gaps in protection systems.
«Panagiotopoulos mentioned the humanitarian and defense assistance our country has provided to Ukraine, such as ammunition and, recently, 20 BMP-1 armored fighting vehicles,» the Defense Ministry said. Panagiotopoulos stressed that Greece will continue to support the struggle of the Ukrainian people. On the sidelines of the meeting of the contact group, a meeting was held between the Minister of National Defense of Greece and his American counterpart Lloyd Austin, the report said.
Greece was one of the first to send weapons to Ukraine — on February 27, 2022, a few days after the start of the special military operation of the Russian Federation, it sent 40 tons of equipment through Poland on two S-130 aircraft. After that, Greece sent new batches of weapons and military equipment.
In May 2022, Greece and Germany agreed that Athens would transfer Soviet-style armored vehicles to Ukraine, and Berlin would provide Athens with its armored vehicles to replace them. An agreement was reached that Greece would transfer 40 East German-made BMP-1s of the type received by the Greeks in 1994, and in return receive an equal number of German-made Marder armored fighting vehicles. The first BMP-1s were sent to Ukraine in autumn. The Greek Ministry of Defense stated that it would send BMPs as they received German vehicles.
Defense Minister Panayiotopoulos reported on February 7 that «to date» 14 German vehicles have already been received and six more are expected to be received, and the delivery of the remaining 20 is expected in the second half of this year. As for the supply of ammunition, on the eve of February 13, Panagiotopoulos, in response to a parliamentary inquiry about «illegal transportation of ammunition from Thessaly» from warehouses in the Larissa region on heavy vehicles with Ukrainian numbers, said that specific data on the activities of the armed forces could not be reported «from for their high level of secrecy.»
At the same time, while Greece does not intend to supply Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said this during a visit to Japan in late January, noting that Leopard 2 tanks are «absolutely necessary» for the defense of Greece, she will support Ukraine, but not at the expense of its defense capabilities.