Greece delivered 'unbelievable' amount of military equipment to Ukraine: Report

The Greek government has delivered or is about to deliver an "unbelievable" amount of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, Greek Minister of National Defence, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, Pro News reported. The statement of Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos comes as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues for over 100 days. 

Panagiotopoulos reportedly said that Greece has been providing defence assistance to Ukraine to fight the "authoritarian Russian regime." As per the Pro News report, the military equipment that has been included in the long list of deliveries includes 122 TOMA BMP-1 with all the ammunition of their machine guns, 15,000 73 mm missiles, 2100 122 mm rockets, 20,000 AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 3,200,000 7.62 mm cartridges, 60 MANPAD FIM-92 Stinger, 17,000 155 mm artillery missiles, and 1,100 RPG-18 anti-tank rockets. The Greek authorities made use of six Greek C-130 transport aircraft, and 10 Canadian and 5 New Zealand aircraft were used to deliver military equipment to Ukraine. Notably, several EU nations have been providing defence assistance to Ukraine ever since Russia began its offensive on February 24. 

Greece to send Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine 

Earlier on May 31, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Berlin will provide modern vehicles to Greece so that the government in Athens delivers Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine. He made the remarks after the two-day European Council meeting in Brussels. Scholz said that he had discussed the tank exchange deal with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Politico reported. He said that the defence ministers of Greece and Germany will discuss the deal regarding the tank swap in "very concrete terms" and work to implement the decision at the earliest. The German Chancellor had not revealed the details regarding what kind of Soviet-era tanks will be sent to Ukraine. However, the Greek Defence Ministry has announced that they will be providing BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine and will get an "equal number" of German Marder infantry fighting vehicles in return.

(Image: AP)