Reports on capture of Greek consul general ‘flat-out lies’

Greek diplomatic sources dismissed as “flat-out lies” reports circulating on the internet that Manolis Androulakis, Greece’s Consul General in Mariupol, had been taken captive by the Azov Battalion, an ultranationalist militia.

Androulakis, the last diplomat of an EU member-state in Mariupol, had stayed behind to assist some 150,000 ethnic Greeks in the wider area who wanted to flee. It was not clear who leaked the rumor.

On Thursday, foreign ministry sources had said that the diplomat had reached Uman, in western Ukraine.

“The Foreign Ministry is in continued contact with him and fortunately everything is going well,” the sources said, adding that the diplomat is well in his health and will shortly resume his journey towards the border of Ukraine.

Androulakis is being evacuated in an operation that includes staff of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with their families who had remained in Mariupol during the Russian bombing.