The United Kingdom wanted to grant Ukraine two minesweepers as they retired from service at Royal Navy. Ukraine planned to use them to open a safe passage for civilian ships transporting grains. Turkiye did not allow such passage as it would be a clear breach of the Montreux Convention. Ukraine has later stated that they never asked Turkiye to grant a permit as it would allow Russia to bring new vessels to the Black Sea.
The Greek Defence Minister, Nikos Dendias and the Minister of State for the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, James Heappey, met at the embassy residence in London. Defence Minister Dendias wrote on his personal social media account that he asked to deliver minesweepers to Greece as the country. “We also discussed the potential grant of minehunters by the United Kingdom to Greece”, Dendias wrote but did not mention his counterpart’s response.
