Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Russian Embassy in an Athens suburb on Saturday to protest the invasion of Ukraine.

The protesters, many of the Ukrainians living in Greece, chanted slogans, sang, and held placards that read, “World, wake up,” and “Putin, hands off Ukraine.”

A similar gathering, but attended only by a few dozen, took place simultaneously outside the Russian consulate in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki.

On Saturday, the Greek government said Prime Minister Mitsotakis had talked on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, telling him Greece had from the start argued for the strictest possible sanctions on Russia.

Greece also said it would continue to provide aid in the form of medical supplies and that it would keep its consulates in Mariopol and Odesa in Ukraine – where an estimated 150,000 ethnic Greeks live – open.

Zelenskyy thanked Mitsotakis for Greece’s clear and early support and asked that it continue to do so within the EU, the Greek government said.

The assault, anticipated for weeks by the West, amounts to Europe’s largest ground conflict since World War II.

It could also portend the emergence of a new “Iron Curtain” between the West and Russia, with global repercussions.