Greek FM Dendias to visit Odessa Sunday

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias plans to visit the Ukrainian city of Odessa Sunday.

The visit is contingent on the security situation there and may be canceled if the situation is deemed too dangerous, according to a report by TV station Skai.

Should the visit proceed, it will also include humanitarian assistance. 

Dendias spoke about the visit and the necessary security measures Friday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, and Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Dendias plans to meet Ukrainian officials in the city and representatives of the ethnic Greek community there. Odessa has had a strong Greek presence for millennia. Dendias also plan to visit the museum of the Filiki Etaireia (Society of Friends), the secret society founded in Odessa in 1814 and which played a decisive role in the start of the 1821-29 Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. The museum has remained closed recently.

The Greek government is also greatly interested in the fate of the much larger ethnic Greek community in Mariupol and the opening of a humanitarian corridor to the Eastern Ukrainian city. France and Turkey are also working to that effect.