According to information published by the Greek magazine website “Ptisi & Diastima” on November 23, 2022, the United States proposed to the Greek armed forces to replace all Russian-made military equipment including air defense systems with new military equipment produced by the US or European defense companies.
After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine started, Greece, as one of the EU countries, imposed sanctions on Russia, and Russia added all EU countries to the list of “unfriendly nations”, which poses a problem for the maintenance and purchase of spare parts of Russian-made military equipment.
Greece is one of the few pre-1990 NATO member countries that use Russian weapons. Greece first received many Soviet-era surplus weapons, such as BMP-1 armored fighting vehicles, RM-70 rocket launchers, ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns and SA-8 anti-aircraft missile systems from the former East German National People’s Army inventory in the early 1990s. During the 2000s, Greece additionally procured the TOR M-1 and S-300PMU1 anti-aircraft air defense missile systems, the Kornet-E anti-tank missile, AK-74M assault rifles, and ZUBR hovercraft.
Citing the Ptisi & Diastima website, the United States could propose the purchase of US and European military equipment via the Foreign Military Sale programs. At the same time, Ukraine has requested Greece to provide Russian-made air defense systems currently in service with the Greek armed forces, but this idea was rejected due to the contract agreement signed by Greece with Russia.