Greece: No holiday from war

"It took six days for me to get out of Ukraine. No one thought the war would really happen, but on the third day in [the] center of Kyiv I had heard an explosion at 5 in the morning and I understood that this would be a real invasion."

Nadiia Shapoval's voice is harsh with stress as she tells DW about her ordeal as she fled Ukraine a few days after the Russian invasion on February 24.

Taking just vital documents and some cash with her in her car, the 32-year-old journalist and ex-model managed to make her way to Athens, where her husband, professional footballer Dmytro Chyhrynskyi, plays as a center-back for Greek Super League club Ionikos.

"Now I am working with @helpukraine.gr here in Athens to help other people in my situation or still trapped in Ukraine," she says.

Since the outbreak of war, more than 10,000 people have fled to Greece from Ukraine. Many came by car, like Shapoval, travelling though Romania and Bulgaria, to reach Greece.

Greek authorities have set up two refugee camps just behind the border in Sintiki.

"There is a large established Ukrainian community in Greece, of more than 20,000 people, and many of the new arrivals are hosted by friends or relatives," UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Stella Nanou told DW.

Greece and Ukraine share deep historical ties

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has declared his country stands by Ukraine as it fights to protect its democracy and freedom.

Greece and Ukraine also share a special bond in that Ukraine's besieged port city of Mariupol has been home to a large Greek community since the 18th century. Recent Russian attacks on the city have led to the deaths of several Greek nationals.

On Sunday, Greece's Consul General in Mariupol, Manolis Androulakis, arrived in Athens after being evacuated from the city. He had remained there all this time, despite the Russian onslaught, to help his compatriots leave the country.

"What I saw, I hope no one will ever see," he told reporters after touching down at Athens International Airport. "Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don't need to name them — they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad."

Russian tourists have left

Greece is one of the most sought-after holiday destinations with Russians vacationers.

Following Russia's war on Ukraine, however, Greece and all other EU states closed their airspace to Russian aircraft. This left scores of Russian travelers stranded, though most were eventually able to return home via Turkey and Serbia.

The Russian embassy in Athens recently issued a statement saying that it was concerned about "threats and insults" directed towards its nationals.

"You could say we are keeping our heads down," said one Russian in Athens who didn't wish to be identified. "We are mostly ashamed of what our leader is doing and most Greeks seem to understand this and are generally helping us. We feel for the Ukrainians — this war is a politicians' war, it has nothing to do with normal people."

In Greece, many ordinary people have launched initiatives to help Ukrainians.

Innesa Stakhurska, a Ukrainian national herself, runs Save life in UA, an association collecting warm clothes, medicine and other vital necessities for her fellow countrymen and women who had had to flee.

Stakhurska has been based in the Cretan capital of Heraklion for the past six years. She worries that Greece might not be able to cope with the influx of refugees. 

"Poland was expecting refugees — since last November they were saying that they expected about 2-3 million people from Ukraine if the war began," she told DW, "but I think Greece was not really prepared for refugees — although here in Crete people really do everything to help and do whatever they can." 

No reason to worry?

Greek support for EU sanctions against Russia has also resulted in the loss of vital tourism revenue as Russian travelers rush to cancel their holidays.

In a televised statement, however, the country's Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias insisted that the conflict would have little effect on tourism. "Before 2013, we had 1,2 million travelers from Russia coming to Greece. This fell to 50% after the war in Crimea in 2013-2014, and has continued to decline, so this market does not account for a big part of our tourism," he said.

But hoteliers like Konstantinos Stroutzos, the general manager of Avra Imperial, a luxury resort near the Cretan town of Chania, are worried. He is certain the war will affect Greece directly.

"Some markets have largely disappeared from booking data — and even our search data — and cancellations of already-booked trips have started, even though many cancellations are based on psychological fear rather than having anything to do with the actual situation," Stroutzos told DW.

"Alongside the humanitarian catastrophe, the economic effect is already beginning to be felt across other industries and fuel costs will add further pressure on the aviation industry which is slowly recovering post-pandemic," he adds.

Empty hotels turned into refugee shelters

In a bid to alleviate the humanitarian suffering, the president of the Hellenic Hoteliers Federation, Grigoris Tasios, said in a television interview that the country's hotel owners were prepared to help the Ukrainian people. "We are ready to host refugees from Ukraine; in addition to shelter, we will offer them the chance to work in hotel enterprises if they wish."

For Giorgios Kaloutsakis, who owns luxury hotel Abaton Island, tourism professionals in Greece and elsewhere should be more principled.

"The money we spend during our holidays should not support destinations where regimes violate social and cultural norms and eventually become disruptors of world peace and stability," Kaloutsakis said.

"I urge that we hotel owners and people involved in tourism should all talk freely and describe the current reality at its full level without being worried if we will make guests and partners of ours unhappy."

Nadiia Shapoval agrees that more needs to be done. "I talk to people and they think Kyiv is so far away — but its only two hours flight from Berlin," she said. "How many lives have to be taken until Europe takes action?"