ATHENS, December 24. /TASS/. Greece continues sending trucks with shells, other munitions and weapons to Ukraine while hiding it from its own public, the Neostrategy.gr news website reported.
According to the website, the people of Greece witnessed the passage of convoys of Greek and - more often - foreign-made trucks (Bulgarian, Romanian and Polish) transporting containers, mainly with shells, to Balkan states and Poland, and eventually to Ukraine. Ammunition and weapon systems are being transported from the Greek port of Alexandroupolis as well: US-made weapon systems are being unloaded in Alexandroupolis and are then being delivered via railroad, the website says.
Recently, Neostrategy.gr learned about new arms shipments transported in containers from large warehouses in Northern Greece "to an unknown destination;" video footage of these shipments were provided by the readers. Very large ammunition depots located near the city of Giannitsa, where a US-NATO military camp used to be, were emptied about ten days ago. It is believed that the containers transported by Greek trucks mainly contained artillery shells. These shells have been shipped from Greece to Ukraine for two years, which, however, has been mentioned by Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his meetings with Vladimir Zelensky; former Defense Minister Dora Bakoyannis also used to say that Greece is in war with Russia, the website notes.
So far, the Greek government has systematically avoided mentioning, what weapons and in what quantities have been sent to Ukraine, especially if shipment of these weapons would negatively affect the Greek Armed Forces, the report says. However, a high-ranking military official said during an unofficial briefing for the press that, when the war in Ukraine started, European countries did not have sufficient stockpile of ammunition to send to Ukraine, so Greece, which, according to the official, had large own stockpiles, took this burden upon itself and continues to ship these weapons to this day. If what he said is true, then Greece shipped a huge amount of ammunition to Ukraine, the website says.
Neostrategy.gr also noted that the Greek government has not explained even to the other parties in the parliament, what Greece gains in exchange for the ammunition - whether the EU pays for them, how much of that money goes to the national budget and what this money is then being spent on.
Arms shipments to Ukraine
Earlier in April this year, the Communist Party of Greece condemned the shipment of tens of thousands of munitions with prohibited white phosphorus to Ukraine. This statement was made by Communist Party lawmaker Nikolaos Papanastasis, according to the ANA-MPA news agency.
Before that, the ieidiseis.gr news reported that Greece intended to sell 150 million euros worth of munitions nearing their expiration date to Ukraine, which would require an approval from the parliamentary committee. In January, leader of the Greek Solution party Kyriakos Velopoulos called a potential shipment of munitions to Ukraine high treason, after reports emerged that Ukrainian semi-trailer trucks were moving out munitions from Greek Army warehouses in Kechries.