Four more ethnic Greeks are killed in eastern Ukraine raising the total fatalities to ten on a single day. The Greek Foreign MInistry announced late on Saturday that four more ethnic Greeks were killed in Sartana, eastern Ukraine.
Another four were killed Saturday afternoon in the village of Bugas, some 70 km north of Mariupol.
A few hours earlier, another two were killed and six including a child injured in the village Sartana, 10 km of Mariupol.
In a second the Foreign Ministry in Athens confirmed the deaths of the six people and the injuries of another six and condemned the ongoing attacks against civilians.
FM Nikos Dendias expressed grief and abhorrence for the attacks on civilians.
Εκφράζουμε τη βαθύτατη θλίψη μας για τον θάνατο τεσσάρων ακόμη ομογενών στο Μπουγάς της Ουκρανίας και τα ειλικρινή συλλυπητήρια στους οικείους τους. Καταδικάζουμε απερίφραστα τις συνεχιζόμενες επιθέσεις εναντίον αμάχων. https://t.co/fLcqqvZWFT
— Nikos Dendias (@NikosDendias) February 26, 2022
Deputy foreign ministers Miltiadis Vervitsiotis and Andreas Katsaniotis also posted on social media stressed that “Russia ought to understand even at this point that this war will only have losers, particularly innocent victims.”
Statement by Russian Embassy in Athens
The Russian Embassy in Athens issued a statement early Saturday evening expressing “its deep grief over the death and injury of Greek community members in the region of Donbas on Saturday.
It said added that “Russia’s special military operations in Ukraine only target exclusively military units and infrastructure.”
“We do not bomb inhabited areas and villages, nor any political or social infrastructure. The Russian Air Forces were not operating in the region of the Sartana village today,” the statement said adding that “the Ukrainian army and nationalist neo-Nazi orders have been known for years to attack civilians, even with heavy weapons. This is proven and officially documented.”
The Russian embassy warned that “the Kiev regime is possibly using the Greek and other ethnic minorities living in Ukraine to provoke and inflame the anti-Russian reaction abroad.”
The Foreign Ministry has earlier summoned the Russian ambassador to the ministry for tomorrow, Sunday.
