Effort underway to evacuate Greek consul general, OSCE staff from besieged Mariupol

An operation, in coordination with the OSCE, was underway on Tuesday to evacuate Greece’s consul general in the besieged southeastern Ukraine port city of Mariupol, along with the European organization’s remaining staff members there.

Greek consul Manolis Androulakis was reportedly the last western diplomat, and possibly the only accredited diplomat left in the city and wider region, where a sizable ethnic Greek community has existed for at least two and a half centuries.

Mariupol has come under sustained attack by invading Russian forces over the past week.

A convoy with the evacuating staff members was heading west, ostensibly to reach either the Polish or Romanian borders.

In a phone call this week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis cited the need to create a humanitarian corridor in the Mariupol region for civilians wishing to flee to safer areas.