FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
When in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his entourage boarded the prime ministerial jet that took off from the Elefsina airbase, initially destined for Chisinau, Moldova and finally Odessa, Ukraine, everyone knew the extent of the danger of this the trip.
Therefore until the last hour an effort was made to keep the visit a secret, so that Mitsotakis would arrive with maximum security at the port associated with Hellenism.
However, a few hours later, the scene changed, when the first information from social networks and messages from Ukrainians about the explosions in Odessa arrived in Athens.
The scene was not unusual for the city that is very close to Crimea: all the previous days it had rained rockets, so people familiar with the visit had concerns about what the prime minister's team would encounter.
And it may be that the Greek mission was not really in danger in the end, the Russians, however, cynically hit a target very close to a prime minister of an EU and NATO country.
Many unsuspecting people were aware of Mr. Mitsotakis' presence in the city.
According to the information of people who lived these difficult moments on the ground, the prime minister had completed his first contact with Volodymyr Zelensky and his associates at the port of Odesa, which plays a decisive role in the iron export business from Ukraine. A contact that lasted over 45 minutes and saw Mitsotakis visit the war-torn country for the first time since the beginning of the Russian occupation.
At one point, sirens were heard, followed by a powerful explosion, after which members of the Greek mission could see a lot of smoke several hundred meters away. Immediately the members of the two missions rushed to get into the cars and they by general order changed the planned course, briefly delaying the remainder of the program. The first image released was that the explosion was extremely close to Zelensky's motorcade, but it appears that the target was a floating drone base.
Mitsotakis, however, quickly continued his contacts, visiting the Philiki Etairia museum, an apartment building hit by Russian drones a few days earlier, as well as the Transfiguration Cathedral, before seeing Mr Zelensky again and making public statements .
It is clear that the members of the Greek mission were worried, as it is one thing to hear and read about the war and another to experience it.
"I think this is the best, most vivid memory for us that a real war is happening here. Every day there is a war, which does not only affect the front line, the soldiers, it also affects our innocent fellow citizens," underlined Mr. Mitsotakis, commenting on this very incident.
Lini një Përgjigje