Russians likely knew of Greek presence
Indications are that Moscow was aware PM Mitsotakis was in vicinity of Odesa missile attack
As more time goes by, it is becoming increasingly clear that Moscow knew that at the time of the missile strike on the port of Odesa on Wednesday that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were standing just a few hundred meters away.
For his part, the deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, said directly, via his Telegram channel, that if Moscow chose to carry out a strike against the delegation accompanying Zelensky, it would succeed.
“If it was a goal, we would have achieved it,” Medvedev said of Zelenskyy, without, however, making any reference to the almost simultaneous presence of Mitsotakis.
Apart from Medvedev’s statement, which suggests Moscow’s prior knowledge of Mitsotakis’ visit to Odesa, a number of other elements converge.
First and foremost, while the preparations for Mitsotakis’ visit were indeed clandestine, they were not an outright secret, as any inter-state understanding is. Another point involves the government aircraft carrying Mitsotakis. The plane landed around 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning in Chisinau, Moldova. The government plane’s mark was visible to the Russians, who could see that it had not landed in Bucharest, where the European People’s Party (EPP) Congress was being held, but further north, which is where Westerners visiting Odesa usually go.
It is also no coincidence that Odesa is a city that the Russians refrain, for various reasons, from targeting on a daily basis, as they do, for example, in areas closer to the eastern Ukrainian front.
Mitsotakis referred to the incident during his speech on Thursday at the EPP conference, sending a message to Moscow.
“I was in Odesa with President Zelenskyy yesterday when a ballistic missile hit the port. I think we all have a message for the Kremlin: we will not be afraid, we will continue to support Ukraine and its brave citizens for as long as it takes. And we remain united on this issue,” he said.
Generally, however, Athens is treating the matter as soberly as possible to avoid sending a message implying a feud with Moscow. Greece will reportedly stick to the stance it has taken since February 2022, according to which it always sides with the status quo. In the context of Ukraine, the status quo consists of maintaining internationally recognized borders and condemning Russia’s invasion as a tool for using force to change the post-Cold War status quo in Eastern Europe.
