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Greece will transfer its S-300 long-range air defense systems to Ukraine only if it receives a full replacement, Forbes reported on August 18.
Athens has resisted requests from Kyiv and its international partners to give up the air defense systems, insisting on an equivalent replacement due to regional security concerns, according to the report, which notes that Greece considers the network a crucial deterrent against Turkey and refuses to surrender it without a substitute.
Athens would prefer to receive American-made Patriot air defense systems in return, though Forbes reported that such an arrangement is unlikely.
Other factors complicating the potential transfer include a partial deterioration in relations after a Ukrainian unmanned surface vessel was found in Greek territory, and potential concerns in Athens over Moscow’s reaction.
“Moreover, Moscow has warned Greece against such a move, noting that Athens requires its permission to transfer these missile systems to any third party,” Forbes reported. “And Russia understandably does not want Ukraine to acquire such strategic systems.”
Greece acquired around four S-300PMU-1 systems after the 1997–1998 Cyprus missile crisis. This version is an older upgrade of the original Soviet-made air defense system. These systems, comprising eight fire units and 32 launchers in total, are currently deployed on the island of Crete.
The S-300PMU-1 fires anti-aircraft missiles from the 48N6 family, which can hit targets up to 195 kilometers away. Greece received at least 175 of these missiles from Russia.
This is not the first time the idea of handing over these systems to Ukraine has been floated, although Kyiv is currently facing a serious shortage of anti-aircraft missiles.
CNN reported on August 17 on a Patriot system sitting idle in a Ukrainian cornfield that hadn’t been fired in the past ten weeks, as Ukrainian stockpiles of these anti-aircraft missiles reach alarmingly low levels.
One solution Ukraine is working on is modernizing its arsenal of older S-300 systems inherited from the Soviet Union and building new missiles for them.
“There’s a joint U.S.-Ukrainian effort going on to essentially retrofit or upgrade the old S-300 missiles or a newer variant of the S-300 and give it better capabilities,” retired U.S. Army Col. Robert Hamilton told PBS in an August 5 interview. “And so that should come online near the end of this year. But, again, we’re talking a hundred or a couple hundred a year that could be produced.”
The air defense shortage in Ukraine is the result of a wider anti-aircraft missile crisis in the West, with the United States itself reportedly badly affected. Taking this into account, providing Greece with an alternative seems highly unlikely. Thus, transferring the Greek S-300s to Ukraine will not likely happen anytime soon.
Even if the systems were to be delivered, with Russia’s continually expanding missile and drone attacks, the 175 anti-aircraft missiles Ukraine could get from Greece would run out within a few months, if not weeks.
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any non white (specially africans and asians) would be beaten to death by the white supremacists of the following organizations: ss aidar, ss kraken, wolfsangel (aka azov), waffen ss nachtigall (who were in kursk killing civilians), leibstandarte adolf hitler (zelenski security team), right sektor ukr – all of them hate africans and asians, and all of them are leading the ukrainian government and military. all of them funded by the us and eu tax payers