With the official death toll of Ukrainian Greeks having risen to 12 to date, the resolve to resist the Russian invasion remains strong, community leader Anton Savidis told Neos Kosmos on Thursday.
Mr Savidi who is a Russian-speaking Ukrainian Greek from the disputed east of the country, had been in contact with the Greek Community of Melbourne earlier this week while he was still in Kyiv and he praised the GCM’s support and Australia’s stance against the Russian invasion.
“We really appreciate the support the Australian government has given Ukraine. We feel their support and know that the Greek community there is with us. We need support diplomatically and in material.”
Mr Savidi said that much support would be needed after the fighting was over as many of the homes of Greek community members had been damaged in the fighting. He said humanitarian support was needed now as the fighting has intensified throughout the country. The president of Enotita, Nina Plechak-Paskal and Mr Savidi moved to western Ukraine this week where they were continuing their work in support of the national effort against the Russian invasion.
On Tuesday Russians shelled Sartana and the nearby town of Bourgas killing 12 ethnic Greeks but many more were missing.
Mr Savidi told Neos Kosmos that the community was able to get children away to safety.
“The Sartana community was able to get some children out. All they (the children) took with them was just an icon and clean underwear, Mr Savidis said.
Athenian Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) journalist Sofi Prokopidi took to social media to report on what ethnic Ukrainian-Greeks were experiencing.
“Sofia, no one has left, we are surrounded. A terrible genocide against Ukrainian people (is taking place) including Greek people. In every village, houses are collapsing, people are hiding in the basements, buried alive by debris,” Ms Prokopidi wrote. “In Sartana, the dead bodies are laying in the streets dragged by dogs.”
“If only Greece did something… take in the Greeks with their families or at least the Greek women – the mothers with their children!”
Hellenic populations in Eastern Ukraine, especially in Sartana and Mariupol, have been around for 243 years. Sartana alone, is the home of 8,000 Greeks out of a population of 100,000 -150,000 Greeks residing in Mariupol and surrounding areas.
Meanwhile, a convoy transporting the staff of the Greek Consulate General of Mariupol in southern Ukraine left the embattled southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Thursdsay. It spent the night behind Ukrainian lines and was on its way to Moldova on Friday morning. The Consul-General Manolis Androulakis has stayed behind in Mariupol.
Sources told AMNA that everyone the convoy which included Greek nationals and 10 Greek journalists, was in good health. The convoy which was led by Ambassador Fragkiskos Kostellenos set of from the city of Zaporizhzhia, 300km west of Mariupol, and would head westwards. The evacuation was the third evacuation of Greek consular staff in Ukraine. The first entitled “Nostos 1” was to evacuate Greeks and Cypriots out of the capital, Kyiv, and was organised by the foreign ministries of Greece and Cyprus. “Nostos 2” focussed on the consular staff evacuation in Odessa which was coordinated general consul Dimitris Dochtsis.
According to sources, the General Consulates in Mariupol and Odessa and the Greek Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Management Unity were in contact with Greek citizens, including Greek seamen, who still remained in Ukraine. They said the vast majority of Greeks had chosen to remain in the Ukraine. Mr Savidis told Neos Kosmos that ethnic Ukrainian Greeks had not received the same consideration as Greek passport holders by the consular staff in Mariupol in the days before their withdrawal.
Over the last few days, as the Russians tightened their encirclement of Mariupol, an important port on the Sea of Azov with a large ethnic Greek population, the corridor for people fleeing the city became increasingly dangerous to use. The city was reported to be under intense Russian bombardment.
The BBC reported Ukrainian and Russian officials had twice met and agreed to possible temporary ceasefires which would only apply where humanitarian corridors were opened to allow civillians to flee the fighting in Ukrainian cities under heavy Russian bombardment. It said that Ukraine’s President Volodmir Zelensky had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for one-on-one talks as the only way to end the war. At the same time, he called on the West to give him aircraft to fight the Russian invasion.
On Thursday, after a week of intense fighting, the Russians were reported to have finally captured their first Ukrainian city, Kharkiv, the second largest city, about 400km north of Mariupol. At the time of writing Russian forces were shelling Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant which is on Dnieper River, 280km west of Mariupol. They have already captured the Chernobyl nuclear plant.