If US places Patriot air defense system in Crete, Greece will provide Ukraine with S-300: what is known

Greece may provide Ukraine with S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems if the United States deploys its Patriot air defense systems in Crete instead. This statement was made by the Minister of Defense of Greece, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos.

This is reported by Pronews.gr.

"If the US installs the Patriot system on the island (Crete) and after it is integrated — connected to the national air defense system, then the S-300 can be removed. The same procedure applies to any other russian air defense system production that they may want to send to Ukraine," Panagiotopoulos said at a Greek Ministry of Defense meeting.

The publication notes that it follows from Panagiotopoulos' words: in case of providing American air defense equipment, Greece can also send to Ukraine other russian-made air defense equipment — "Tor-M1" and "Osa-AKM."

Pronews.gr also notes that the Greek Defense Minister did not talk about the purchase of Patriot but only about their installation by the US, which means that these air defense systems in Crete will be under American control.

Back in September, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis claimed that Greece has no intention of sending russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Ukraine, as it does not want to weaken its own defense.

Instead, as is known, Greece transferred old BMP-1 to Ukraine in exchange for German armored vehicles of the Marder1A3 type.

Reference

In April, Slovakia transferred the S-300 air defense division to Ukraine, receiving the American Patriot instead.