ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatian officials criticized NATO on Saturday for what they say was its slow response to a military drone that appeared to fly all the way from the Ukrainian war zone over several member states. NATO before crashing into the urban area of the Croatian capital.
The Russian-made unmanned aerial vehicle crossed Romania and Hungary before entering Croatia and crashed into a field near a student dormitory late on Thursday. About 40 parked cars were damaged, but no one was hurt after the loud explosion.
NATO said the alliance’s integrated air and missile defense tracked the object’s flight path. But the Croatian prime minister said the country’s authorities were not informed and that NATO only reacted after journalists asked a question.
“We cannot tolerate this situation and this should never have happened,” Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said during a visit to the crash site.
“It was a pure and clear threat, and both NATO and the EU had to respond,” he said. “We will work to increase the readiness not only of us, but also of others. ”
Plenkovic said the Soviet Tu-141 Strizh reconnaissance drone flew over 40 minutes over Hungary and six to seven minutes over Croatia before crashing. Earlier, the Romanian defense authorities said that the flying object was in Romanian airspace for only three minutes after crossing the border with Ukraine, making it difficult to intercept.
Plenković urged the Hungarian authorities to launch an investigation into why their defense apparently failed to spot the drone, as both Croatia and Romania had little time to react to the fast-moving object.
“Fortunately, nothing much worse happened,” Plenkovich said, adding that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “found out about it after me.”
“It could have fallen at a nuclear power plant in Hungary. Obviously, there has not been a good response, and other countries have not responded well. We now have a test that we should learn from and respond much better,” he said.
He said only an investigation into the crash could determine whether the drone was launched by the Russians or the Ukrainians after the object was pulled out of the large crater created by the impact.
Both Russia and Ukraine deny they have launched the drone.
Military experts say Ukraine is the only known operational operator of the Tu-141, which has a wingspan of almost 4 meters (12 feet) and weighs just over 6 tons.