The Croatian Prime Minister on Saturday deplored the lack of reaction in NATO airspace following the downing of a military drone in Zagreb that was launched “on Ukrainian territory” and called for “strengthening cooperation” within the alliance. “Obviously the reaction was bad, neither the assessment of the level of danger, nor the quick and quick communication with other countries (…) This is an incident that should not be repeated,” Croatian Prime Minister. This was stated by Minister Andrei Plenkovic during a visit to the crash site of a drone. “This is a test that should allow us all to learn a lot and respond better,” he added.
The car crashed on Thursday evening in a park located six kilometers from the center of Zagreb, next to the university campus, which is home to 4,500 students, and about 200 meters from a residential area, without any casualties. 40 cars parked in the parking lot were damaged. According to the Croatian leader, the Tupolev Tu-141 Strizh, a Soviet-made reconnaissance drone used in the 1970s and 1980s, is 14 meters long and weighs more than 6 tons.
According to Andriy Plenkovic, “obviously launched from Ukrainian territory”, the aircraft flew in Romanian and Hungarian airspace before crashing in Zagreb after “seven minutes” of flight in Croatia. “We don’t know who it belonged to… the Russian and Ukrainian sides claim that it is not theirs,” he said, adding that elements that would be found during the investigation could provide such an answer.
Zagreb is about 550 kilometers in a straight line from the nearest border with Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russian troops since February 24. The prime minister called for “strengthening and intensifying cooperation” in such situations within the alliance. According to Croatian authorities, the plane was in Hungarian airspace for about 40 minutes without warning Croatia. “This is the airspace of NATO, Romania, Hungary and Croatia, and we can no longer tolerate such a situation. This should not happen again. It was an obvious threat that had to be responded to,” Andrei Plenkovic said.
A NATO official told AFP on Friday that “[the alliance’s]integrated air and missile defense followed the trajectory of the object, which then crashed in Zagreb.”
War in Ukraine: our live broadcast