Plenkovic has criticized NATO’s response to the incident as inadequate. The reconnaissance drone flew through the airspace of two NATO member states before crashing near a residential area in Zagreb, Plenkovic said on Saturday. This is “unacceptable”.
He had sent letters to his EU colleagues and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about the incident, said Plenkociv when visiting the crash site in Zagreb. “We can no longer tolerate such a situation.” The Tupolev Tu-141 drone was a “very clear threat to which there must be a response.”
Crash near residential area
The Soviet-made drone, 14 meters long and weighing more than six tons, fell into a park late Thursday evening about six kilometers from Zagreb city center and only 200 meters from a residential area. About 40 cars parked nearby were damaged, but there were no injuries. The drone has yet to be recovered from the crater it left in the crash. About 4,500 people live in the residential area. Croatia’s chief of staff Robert Hranj spoke of a “rather serious” incident.
Nehammer “deeply shocked”
The incident fuels fears that Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine could spread to other countries. For example, Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) was “deeply shocked” by the crash. “This incident shows that the war in Ukraine is not taking place far away from Austria, but also has direct effects on other European countries,” said Nehammer. “It is all the more important that the European Union stands united and strong and uses peaceful means and tough sanctions against the Russian aggression in Ukraine.”
Plenkovic said on Saturday that it was still unclear “who owned” the drone. It is also unclear whether the flight in the direction of NATO airspace “was an accident, a mistake or intentional”. Both Ukraine and Russia have denied launching the drone.
Drone flew over Hungary for 40 minutes
The Croatian Prime Minister criticized that the drone flew unmolested through the airspaces of Romania and Hungary before entering Croatian airspace. Croatia, Romania and Hungary are all NATO members. According to the Croatian authorities, the drone was in Hungarian airspace for around 40 minutes without Croatia being alerted.
Croatian security experts had already denounced a NATO failure on Friday. President Zoran Milanovic called for an investigation into why the drone “was able to fly over NATO territory for almost an hour without anyone noticing”. But this is “not just a matter for Hungary, it’s a matter for the joint NATO command.”
According to the Croatian chief of staff Hranj, an “intensive investigation” into the background of the incident is underway. The Croatian military is also in “close contact with NATO commanders”.
A NATO official told AFP on Friday that NATO’s integrated air defense “tracked the trajectory of an object that ended up crashing in Zagreb.” It is at least 550 kilometers as the crow flies from the Croatian capital to the Ukrainian border.
Tupolev Tu-141 drones were used by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s. The Ukrainian Armed Forces own this model.
Source: Nachrichten
