Greece's Foreign Minister to lead humanitarian aid mission to Mariupol

Diplomatic efforts are underway to make it possible for Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias to lead a humanitarian aid mission into Mariupol, the besieged Ukrainian port city which hosts a sizeable ethnic Greek minority.

Kyiv appears to have accepted the Greek request, as reflected in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s speech to the French Parliament and Dendias’ communication with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.

It remains to be seen whether Moscow will provide guarantees of safe passage for the assistance that Dendias plans to escort in coordination with the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer.

Dendias met Wednesday with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi. Aside from bilateral issues, the talks, seen as part of Greece’s overtures in the region, focused on the war in Ukraine, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Cyprus issue.