During the regular briefing press briefing at the US State Department, spokesman Ned Price made it clear that the delivery of a defence system to Ukraine is a decision that concerns the country that owns it, following statements by the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova that Russia would retaliate if Greece sent the S-300 missile system to Ukraine.

However, Price was quick to clarify that in many cases the United States is willing to offer trade-offs to facilitate countries wishing to provide defence material to Ukraine.

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Responding to a question from the Hellas Journal website regarding the possible shipment of the S-300 from Cretein to Ukraine and their replacement by the American Patriot system, Price emphasised that “each country will have to decide for itself what it is able to prepare and provide to Ukraine. And we certainly appreciate the many ways in which the international community, including Greece, has shown its support. There have been occasions when we have sometimes referred to them in public. You may recall that in the early days of this conflict, Slovakia made the decision to provide the S-300 air defence system to Ukraine. We were able to support the facilitation of this contribution, meeting Slovakia’s needs. There are some cases where countries are doing this and we are not discussing it publicly, but we are looking at ways through direct security assistance to Ukraine.”

The State Department spokesman acknowledged that there is general unanimity in the Western camp on the immediate need to strengthen Ukrainian air defences, and therefore said that ways are being sought to better shield Ukraine’s airspace. As he noted, “we always refer the (relevant) countries to any contribution they make or may make to Ukraine’s self-defence, but we certainly recognise the deep threat Ukraine faces from the air, and that is something that is also recognised by our allies in NATO, which of course includes Greece. It’s always a topic of discussion when we talk to our Ukrainian partners about what they need to protect their people and their country from the air. It was a topic of discussion at the NATO ministerial conference in Bucharest late last month. And so, we continue to look for ways together with our allies and partners to better and more effectively help Ukraine protect the population and protect its broader infrastructure from these types of attacks.”

Greece received the S-300 system, an air-defence system widely considered to be the best in the world, from Russia via Cyprus and had signed a bilateral agreement with Russia which provides that any transfer to 3rd countries would require prior deliberations with the Russian state.