Greece on Saturday called on Russia to halt aerial assaults on Ukrainian villages, blaming Moscow for the “murder” of at least 10 ethnic Greek civilians there.
“We call on the Russian Federation to immediately halt aerial assaults and all action against civilians,” the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
At least 10 members of Ukraine’s ethnic Greek community of more than 100,000 people were killed on Saturday in assaults Athens has blamed on Russia, calling them “unacceptable criminal acts.”
Six of the deaths occurred in or near the village of Sartana, where six other ethnic Greeks were also injured, one of them a child, the ministry said.
The Sartana villagers died in “murder from the air,” it said.
Another four people died in the village of Buhas, it added.
Both villages are in the southeast of the country.
The foreign ministry had already said earlier that it had summoned the Russian ambassador to a meeting set yesterday.
“The death of ethnic Greeks is a cause for sadness and anger at this unacceptable act of Russian aggression against civilians,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote on Twitter earlier.
Just days before the Russian invasion, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias had “urgently” raised the protection of the ethnic Greeks in Ukraine during a meeting with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, the ministry added.
The Russian embassy in Athens in a statement expressed “deep sorrow” over the deaths, but said that Russia was “exclusively” targeting military units and installations in Ukraine.
“We do not bomb inhabited areas and villages, nor any political or cultural infrastructure,” the embassy said, adding that “the Ukrainian army and nationalist Nazi squads have been known for many years to strike against civilians.”
“The Kiev regime is possibly using the ethnic Greek and other communities living in Ukraine precisely to foment anti-Russian reaction abroad,” it added.
Earlier this month, Athens protested to Kiev after an ethnic Greek died in a brawl in eastern Ukraine, which Athens blamed on Ukrainian soldiers.
Greece on Friday closed its embassy in Kyiv, but has reinforced its consular presence in the southern city of Mariupol, the heart of the ethnic Greek community that dates to the 18th century.
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