Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that his visit to Odessa, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, "reflects, I believe, the respect of the entire free world for your heroic people."

At a joint press conference with Zelensky, Mitsotakis said that his tour of Odessa and the visit to the area where 12 civilians were killed after an attack on a housing complex "clearly imprinted on one hand the picture of catastrophe you have suffered and on the other the image of resilience and courage of the Ukrainian people."

The Greek premier underlined that Greece "defends peace through time and rejects every unhistorical revisionism, much more so since Greece has also found itself facing aggression in the past, and at times when authoritarianism and despotism are black marks on our map and culture." In that respect, he said, "Greece's participation in Europe's defense participation in Ukraine needs no other explanation." 

Mitsotakis said that this war "concerns all of us, all Europeans. Therefore, we can neither stand by silently nor remain neutral in this struggle of Ukraine's to defend the nucleus of European values."