ΑΤΗΕΝS – As fears grow that Russia will invade Ukraine, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said some 120,000 Greeks living in the city of Mariupol – which he visited – can count on Greece.

In a meeting with representatives of the country’s parliamentary parties he pledged support to them, said Kathimerini, as Russia continues a militay buildup near the Ukrainian border.

He said that Greece will support the ethnic Greek community, which he said faces inadequate healthcare and living conditions as Greece tries to keep a balance with Russia.

The peninsula of Crimea was Greek-speaking for more than 2500 years as part of ancient Greek colonies and as a part of the Byzantine Empire and Greek city-states began establishing colonies along the Black Sea coast of Crimea in the 7th or 6th century B.C.

Greeks in Ukraine or Crimean Greeks are a Hellenic minority that reside in or used to live on the territory of modern Ukraine. Most of them live in Donetsk Oblast and particularly concentrated around Mariupol.