Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday pledged to keep up military support for Ukraine for as long as it takes and to help with post-war reconstruction. During his talks in Athens with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader suggested Greece could help train his country’s fighter pilots on new Western aircraft.
Zelenskyy flew to Athens for his fourth visit to a European Union capital in three days, where he later attended an informal meeting of Balkan leaders with top European Union officials.
In statements following talks with Zelenskyy, Mitsotakis voiced full support for Kyiv against Russia’s invasion and condemned Russian “war crimes.” He pledged to “stay on the side of the government and the heroic people” of Ukraine, “however much time may be required.”
Mitsotakis also said NATO-member Greece would participate in the “titanic” task of reconstruction in Ukraine when the fighting is over.
Zelenskyy thanked Mitsotakis for Greece’s support and suggested that Athens has agreed to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the U.S.-made F-16 warplanes that Denmark and the Netherlands pledged to provide to Kyiv.
“Today we have an important result for the aviation coalition — Greece will take part in training our pilots on F-16s, and we thank Greece for this offer”, he said. Zelenskyy and Mitsotakis also signed a joint declaration on Greece supporting Ukraine’s NATO accession, “when allies agree and conditions are met.”
In the evening, Zelenskyy joined an informal dinner organized by Mitsotakis for nine Balkan leaders, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council head Charles Michel.
The dinner was to discuss the Western Balkans’ future in the EU, which many of the region’s countries have already joined and the rest are jockeying to enter.
The presidents of Serbia, Montenegro and Moldova, the prime ministers of North Macedonia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania, and the head of the council of ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina attended Monday’s dinner. Mitsotakis was also meeting several of them individually on Monday and Tuesday.
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