Nicosia will not be giving Ukraine weapons, only humanitarian aid, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis clarified on Friday, commenting on a meeting between Cypriot Defence Minister Michalis Giorgallas and his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov.

Cyprus is however going to offer Ukraine technical training on landmine clearance as part of its humanitarian assistance, Giorgallas said about the meeting with Reznikov.

Reznikov, during his visit on Friday, toured areas where the training will take place.

The Ukrainian minister has been on a tour of EU countries and was in Athens on Thursday, where after his meetings, Greece said they would provide Ukraine with weapons, including 10 Russian amphibious vehicles.

However, visiting Cyprus, Reznikov was promised only humanitarian aid in demining, with the government making it clear that there will be no weapons for Kyiv from Nicosia.

“We will host personnel which will handle demining and detection of mines,” Giorgallas told Sigma TV.

Giorgallas said it is expected that in the last week of April the first group of Ukrainian experts will be hosted in Cyprus for training in demining.

He said: “We are close [to Ukraine] of course, we participate in all councils concerning Ukraine. Let Europe not forget that we too are victims of invasion and occupation and that the same sensitivity and solidarity should exist for Cyprus, which does not exist.”

The minister said that Cyprus also has a right to defend itself.

“Our orientation is not aggressive, we are trying to strengthen the defence and security of the country to reach that level, where whatever happens we can deal with it,” he said.

A group of around 18 Ukrainian officers will be in Cyprus for training in the last week of April, according to Politis newspaper, which first reported the story.

Letymbiotis was on CyBC Friday morning and was adamant that Nicosia’s would provide only humanitarian support to Kyiv.

Commenting on the meeting between Giorgallas and Reznikov, he said that the meeting was to consist of an exchange of know-how that Cyprus may have in matters of training and not to grant armaments to Ukraine.

Letymbiotis reiterated that Cyprus has made it clear that it will not contribute to the Ukrainian military since Cyprus cannot under any circumstances remain without its weaponry.

Asked as to why Cyprus would not be providing weapons, Letymbiotis said that Nicosia had made it clear repeatedly that the government would not provide weapons, only humanitarian aid.

“There is a serious issue for us, which is that Cyprus cannot remain without weapons. We cannot give any weapons for any other cause as defence is a top priority for our country,” he said.

Commenting on the matter, information from inside the military told Politis that even if Cyprus wanted to provide defence equipment, the country could not do it, because there would be serious deficiencies in defence systems if Nicosia were to give the island’s Russian weapons to Ukraine.

According to the report in Politis giving weapons to Ukraine could be examined only if the US and EU allies covered the gaps that Cyprus would face from giving Kyiv the island’s Russian weapons systems.