Today I had the great pleasure of meeting Manolis Androulakis and his father, retired General Mr. Georgios Androulakis. And to offer Manolis the warmest congratulations of the government, of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and me, for the way he performed his duties.
As you know, he was the last European diplomat, the last diplomat to leave Mariupol under extremely adverse conditions. He honoured Greece, he honoured his Ministry and the Diplomatic Corps, and for that he deserves warm congratulations.
Congratulations are also due to Ambassador Fragiskos Kostellenos and our Consul General in Odessa, Dimitris Dochtsis.
They carried out a total of six operations, called ‘Nostos’, for the evacuation of Greek citizens and Diaspora Greeks from Ukraine.
I would also like to extend my warm congratulations to the Secretary General, Themistoklis Demiris, and to the team headed by Mr. Kafopoulos for coordinating the evacuation operations, as well as to our Ambassador in Bucharest, Sofia Grammata.
I should also thank the International Organizations that helped us, the OSCE and its Secretary-General Helga Maria Schmid, the International Committee of the Red Cross and its President Peter Maurer.
I have to also thank the Moldovan side. Yesterday I had the opportunity to express my gratitude directly to my colleague, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova, Nicu Popescu, whom I met in Brussels.
Unfortunately, the war in Ukraine continues unabated.
Our priority, the Greek Government’s priority, is the protection of the Diaspora Greeks, but also of civilians.
In this respect, I have made two decisions.
The first one is to set up a coordination and reception team in Bucharest. Ambassador Mr. Kostellenos will be heading the team, with the participation of our Ambassador in Bucharest, Mrs. Grammata, Mr. Dochtsis and Mr. Androulakis, who will leave soon.
Today I also sent a note verbale to the Ukrainian side asking for the facilitation of the delivery of humanitarian aid in Mariupol and another note verbale to the Russian side asking not to obstruct it.
I intend to accompany this aid in person, in coordination with the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mr Maurer, with whom we are already in contact.
Besides, I emphasized the need to protect civilians in my remarks yesterday at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels and in my private meeting with HR / VP Mr. Borrell, whom I asked to make – and he did make – public statements on Mariupol.
As Prime Minister Mitsotakis clearly has stated, Greece will continue to be present in the region; in a region where Greeks settled centuries ago.
Our first step, when things return to normal, will be to rebuild the maternity hospital in Mariupol; and, following that, to coordinate with the EU in order to do everything possible to bring the city back to its previous state and to facilitate the Diaspora Greeks return to normal life after this tragedy.