Another topic was cooperation between defense enterprises to meet the needs for weapons and equipment of UkraineATHENS, November 17th.
/tass/. The Minister of National Defense of Greece Nikos Panagiotopoulos and the head of the US Military Department Lloyd Austin discussed during a videoconference the issues of training the Ukrainian military and supplying Ukraine with military equipment. This was reported on Wednesday evening by the Greek TV channel EPT1.
According to him, Panagiotopoulos took part in a videoconference of the contact group on assistance to the defense of Ukraine, which was organized on the initiative of Austin with the participation of defense ministers, their deputies and high-ranking officials. The videoconference was attended by the Chief of the General Staff of the National Defense of Greece, General Konstantinos Floros. The events in Ukraine were discussed, while special attention was paid to the provision of defense equipment, training of servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and cooperation between defense enterprises to meet the needs for weapons and equipment, the TV channel noted.
During his speech, the Greek Minister of National Defense said that during a recent visit to Ukraine, when he accompanied Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, he realized the scale of destruction and human suffering caused by military actions. Panagiotopoulos mentioned the humanitarian and military assistance that Greece has provided to Ukraine, including the supply of 155-millimeter shells and BMP-1, and stressed that Greece will continue to support Ukraine.
Greek portal Pronews.gr reported on June 5 that Greece had supplied an "incredibly large" amount of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for its continuation of hostilities. In total, the list of transferred weapons includes dozens of infantry fighting vehicles BMP-1, 15 thousand 73-millimeter shells, 2.1 thousand 122-millimeter rockets, 20 thousand Kalashnikov assault rifles, 3.2 million rounds of 7.62mm caliber, 60 FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS, 17 thousand 155-millimeter artillery shells, 1.1 thousand anti-tank grenades RPG-18 from the warehouses of the Greek army on the islands.
Officially, the Greek authorities do not disclose what exactly they supply to Ukraine. It is only known that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis ordered on February 27 to send defense equipment to Ukraine via Poland on two C-130 military transport aircraft. After that, two more C-130s with cargo of the same purpose flew there. According to the Open TV channel, in particular, 20 thousand Kalashnikov assault rifles were sent to Kiev, confiscated in November 2013 on a ship that was traveling from a Ukrainian port to Libya. A batch of BMP-1s from Greece recently arrived in Kiev. In exchange for them, the first Marder 1A3 infantry fighting vehicles were sent to Greece from Germany. In total, Greece is expected to receive 40 BMP Marder.