“Let me once again express my country’s solidarity with the Ukrainian people, who these days are again suffering from large-scale Russian missile and drone attacks against civilians. These attacks, and I believe that we must reiterate this at every opportunity, are in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. We have made it clear from the beginning that you have an inherent right to defend yourself against Russian aggression.” This was stressed in his speech by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who today participated in the 4th Ukraine-Southeast Europe Summit, which took place in Odessa.

Mitsotakis expressed our country’s support to Ukraine, saying that Greece will continue to support Ukraine, as it has done from the very beginning, diplomatically, politically, economically, militarily, humanitarian.

“We will do everything we can do to work towards ending this disaster and the misery of your country,” Mitsotakis said, adding that it was up to the Ukrainians to decide whether to accept or reject any peace formula.

“And I think you’ve demonstrated very clearly that your intentions are really sincere, unlike those of the other side,” he said.

He called Odessa a symbol of the resistance of the Ukrainian people fighting for their freedom and noted that at this moment, everyone should work for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as a first step towards a just and sustainable peace.

“We will continue to put more pressure on Russia, to support additional sanctions packages, and of course to point out, as my colleagues have done, that this war is not just about Russia and Ukraine. It is about the international order based on rules, about not rewarding the aggressor by accepting a settlement that essentially justifies these aggressive behaviors,” he said.

He briefly touched on the future and the importance of Odessa as a city that highlights future reconstruction and connectivity projects, and said he envisioned the city at one end of an ambitious comprehensive connectivity project that would start at the port of Alexandroupoli and go through Varna, Kostanza, and eventually reach Odessa.

“This is a project that could be proposed for EU funding. It would include transport, rail, electricity, gas, pipelines, and would be a project that would provide an additional connectivity corridor for Ukraine, much faster than your sea transport of goods. And it would also be a clear signal of how your accession to the European Union could make a real difference for the people of Ukraine.”

Finally, addressing the leaders of the Western Balkan countries present in Odessa, Greece will continue to be one of the most ardent and steadfast supporters of the enlargement process and European integration.

Joint press conference

Subsequently, the leaders of the countries participating in the Summit held a joint press conference. Responding to a question on European defence cooperation, EU defence funding programmes and the participation of Ukraine and other third countries, the Prime Minister noted:

“I think there is a broad understanding in Europe and certainly in the European Council that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a violent geopolitical awakening, a necessity to take control of our security, and an urgent need to spend more on European defence collectively. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that before the war in Ukraine, we were almost sleepwalking towards military irrelevance if you look at how much we were spending collectively on defence.

Now we have a new initiative on behalf of the European Union, the ReArm initiative, which essentially has two components. It allows us to spend more at the national level, triggering the national escape clause, without this affecting our spending growth limits. And, of course, there is the SAFE mechanism, which provides loans for investment in European defence, but also promotes cooperation and partnership with other countries, especially with countries that are candidates for accession to the European Union.”

Mitsotakis also said that he sees Ukraine as a strong partner in terms of building our future European security infrastructure, adding that it is no secret that Ukraine has developed enormous potential through this very hard and bloody war.

Regarding SAFE and other candidate countries or other countries that could participate in it, the prime minister sent a message to Turkey saying that obviously, anyone who would want to access European funding would need to at least be in some alignment with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.

“Because, at the end of the day, this is an instrument that was designed to protect Europe as a whole and to create a new European security architecture,” he concluded.

As part of the Summit, the Prime Minister had a private meeting with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while earlier he visited Shevchenko Park with other leaders and laid a wreath at the Alley of Heroes.