The Russian military destroyed five Greek BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles immediately after they were handed over to Ukraine, Greek media reported on Saturday
ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2022) The Russian military destroyed five Greek BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles immediately after they were handed over to Ukraine, Greek media reported on Saturday.
The vehicles were destroyed on October 28, when the Russian army repelled an offensive of Ukrainian troops in Berestove in Kharkiv region, the iskra.gr news portal said. In addition to five BMPs, 150 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, while one tank, four armored personnel carriers, and nine pickup trucks were destroyed, according to the report.
Two of the Greek multiple rocket launcher systems RM-70, operating mainly in the Kherson region, were also destroyed, the news portal said.
The pronews.gr news portal added that one of the BMPs was still bearing the emblem of the Greek armed forces.
A retired military official told the portal that the military had struggled to secure supplies of spare parts until the decision to hand BMPs over to Ukraine was made.
"We made superhuman efforts to keep them in perfect working condition so that they (government) could give them to (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy for free. We did not have car batteries, but we did everything to keep them in working conditions, but before the BMPs were taken from the troops and sent to Ukraine, two vehicles with batteries magically appeared and all the old batteries were replaced," the military source was quoted as saying by pronews.gr.
In May, the Greek Defense Ministry said that Athens would supply Russian-made BMP-1s to Ukraine in exchange for German Marders. Initially, the deal reportedly included about 122 units of BMP-1s. However, in June, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that Athens would deliver a "relatively small" number of armored military equipment.
On September 16, the Greek Defense Ministry said that Greece would send 40 BMP-1s to Ukraine, receiving in return the same number of German armored vehicles.
