Greece offers 'war relief' to Greek-origin Ukrainians

Greece has said it would give special treatment to Greek-origin Ukrainians on the front line who want to resettle in the EU.

Its foreign ministry told EUobserver on Tuesday (25 August), that the 90,000 or so Greek-origin people who live in the Mariupol region in Ukraine would be treated as “returnees” instead of ordinary refugees or asylum seekers.

“Greek Ukranians (not possessing Greek citizenship) who would choose to resettle to Greece would get a special status - as was the case with people of Greek origin emigrating to Greece after the split-up of the former Soviet Union”, Anastasia Christofilopoulou, a Greek spokeswoman, said.

“At that time, there were special provisions facilitating citizenship-acquisition and granting of professional/social rights. In a similar case, similar measures would probably apply”.

Targeted village

Sartana, a majority-Greek village near Mariupol, was, on 16 August, shelled by pro-Russia forces for 25 minutes, killing three people and damaging 170 homes.

It’s the fifth time it’s been targeted.

A Russian Grad rocket attack on Sartana last October killed seven people. A Grad attack on the city of Mariupol, where most diaspora Greeks live, in January, killed 30 people.

Christofilopoulou said even if violence escalates, the “scenario of the whole community resettling in Greece is highly improbable”.

But if there is a large exodus, it would put further strain on a country already struggling with a financial crisis and with mass-scale migration from the Middle East.

Christofilopoulou noted that while the official number of Greek-origin people in Mariupol is 91,000, the Federation of Greek Communities of Mariupol, a local NGO, estimates that the real number is “much higher”.

Greece, on Monday, began flying 191 Greek-origin children and elderly people from Kiev to Rhodes, a Greek island. They first drove 780km from Mariupol to Kiev because the conflict closed Mariupol’s airport last summer.

They are to stay in Rhodes until 12 September in order to get “relief from the war” and to learn about Greek culture.

Mariupol

But in a sign of nerves on the ground, some Ukraine-watchers claimed on social media that Greece had begun a full-scale evacuation.

The Minsk ceasefire accord, signed by Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany in February, has not stopped the fighting.

“If we get just 20 or 30 minutes of shelling a day, that’s considered a normal day”, Mustafa Nayyem, a Ukrainian MP, told EUobserver at Globsec, a security seminar in Slovakia in June.

The Sartana shelling prompted snap meetings of EU and Ukraine leaders in a bid to stop escalation.

But international monitors, the OSCE, in their latest report, on Tuesday, said “ceasefire violations were recorded in numerous locations”.

They noted 32 explosions and small-arms fire in the Donetsk city area and 41explosions in an area north-east of Donetsk.

A senior EU diplomat told this website there’s no indication pro-Russia forces are planning to stage an assault on Mariupol. But with the city located at a strategic point, which separates Russia-occupied east Ukraine from Russia-annexed Crimea, he added that Moscow "is keeping all options on the table”.

Some Greek communities in Ukraine date back to Byzantine times. But the majority settled there in the 18th century.

Christofilopoulou noted that they can’t vote in Greece. But she said they have some special rights, including on access to Greek universities.