Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias is scheduled to visit Odessa, today, Sunday 3 April, 2022.
The trip to Odessa has been arranged so Greece can organise humanitarian assistance to evacuate the remaining population, however, the visit is contingent on the security situation there and may be canceled if it is deemed too dangerous, according to a report by Greece’s Skai TV channel.
Mr Dendias on Friday spoke with both his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and with the President of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer.
“I informed Ukraine’s foreign minister that I plan to visit Ukraine in the near future, and that Greece intends to send humanitarian aid to the suffering people of Ukraine, including the Greek Diaspora, to which our country attaches special importance,” Dendias tweeted.
Earlier today, I reached out successively to my #Ukraine counterpart FM @DmytroKuleba and to the @ICRC President @PMaurerICRC.
— Nikos Dendias (@NikosDendias) April 1, 2022
About speaking with ICRC’s president, Dendias stressed the need to provide humanitarian aid to Mariupol, home to a large part of the Greek Diaspora, expressing the hope that the evacuation of civilians, including Greek Diaspora members, will be made possible.
“Greece stands ready to assist the evacuees,” he tweeted.
Dendias also plans to visit the museum of the Filiki Etaireia (Society of Friends), the secret society founded in Odessa in 1814 and which played a decisive role in the start of the 1821-29 Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. The museum has remained closed recently.
