Greek PM says Ukraine ‘deserves our full support’

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Greece’s prime minister on Wednesday said that Ukraine deserves “full support” to combat Russia’s invasion and added that the aid Kyiv has received so far has been unprecedented. 

“We are committing significant resources. I think never before have we mobilized to this extent to support a country which deserves our full support because it is currently the victim of a vicious attack,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Rudaw’s Znar Shino on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius. 

Ukraine is keen to join NATO and President Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped that the summit in Vilnius would provide Kyiv a clear timeline for its admission into the military alliance. He was disappointed when alliance leaders refused to commit to a timetable, but major G7 powers did give Kyiv much-needed security guarantees with a pledge for long term support to help fend off Moscow’s aggression. 

“I think Ukraine has every reason to be satisfied with what we are doing in terms of concrete support. We as Greece have done our fair share of burden-lifting and we will prevail in this war,” Mitsotakis said. 

Zelensky welcomed the security guarantees but said that the optimal solution is for Ukraine to be given full membership. “The best guarantee for Ukraine is to be in NATO,” he said, expressing hope that Kyiv’s admission will be finalized after the war ends.

Ukraine has been fighting a Russian invasion for over 500 days. Zelensky in September formally announced Kyiv’s application to join NATO, asking for an “accelerated accession” hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was annexing four Ukrainian regions.