Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is on the floor of the plenary session of the Parliament. He is briefing on the crisis in Ukraine and the consequences for Greece.
"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's decision is a clear violation of the UN Charter and the rules for the settlement of interstate disputes by peaceful means," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday in parliament, adding that the Russian president "with the use of force is questionning the territorial integrity of a country with which Russia has close ties, causes deaths including Greeks in Mariupol and forces hundreds of thousands of citizens to migration."
"This is a violent return to the era of hegemony. In a place where the Holocaust took on very severe dimensions and in a place where Ukrainians and Russians united fought the Nazis," Mitsotakis underlined, noting that Russia's pretext for de-Naziizing Ukraine is tenuous.
"This is an irrational and unhistorical invasion. The Russian invasion is aimed at forcibly changing the security architecture in Europe," he said, adding that "the Russian threats against Sweden and Finland speak for themselves. The West is called to be re-baptized. When the Russian provocation hit the core of global geopolitical balance, delays in the West were overcome within days … The effects of Western sanctions are already visible. The Russian economy is being crushed."
"The Greek stance is a result of our historical experience and global balances," the prime minister stated, adding: "We have always been on the right side of history and that is what we are doing now."