Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday that a potential delivery of Greece’s S-300 PMU1 missile defence system to Ukraine would be considered a very provocative move.
The Ministry published this threat on their official website on behalf of spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
In the statement, Zakharova said that plans to hand over to Kyiv S-300 and other air defence equipment are provocative and “a blatantly aggressive move against Russia.”
Zakharova also stated the potential transfer of the missile defence system to Ukraine will be a “gross violation” of Russian-Greek intergovernmental agreements on military-technical cooperation and “will inevitably have consequences.”
“There should be no doubt that all military equipment supplied to Kiev will be promptly traced and destroyed by the Russian Armed Forces,” the spokeswoman added in her statement.
“While there is yet time, such dangerous plans should be abandoned. Once again, we are warning the Greek authorities of their responsibility.”
This Russian statement comes as last week Greek Defence Minister Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos admitted that the Greek government was ready to send S-300 air defence systems from Crete to Ukraine if the US “installs Patriot systems in their place.”
Back in September, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the country would not provide Ukraine with S-300 surface-to-air missiles because such support for the war-torn country “should not come at the expense of weakening Greece’s defence system.”
READ MORE: Greece rejects Turkey’s claims Greek missiles locked on its fighter jets.
Source: Ekathimerini.
