Mystery as Russian drone flies over three NATO countries before crashing in Croatia

Mystery surrounds reports of a Russian drone that crashed in Croatia after first flying over three NATO countries

Mystery surrounds a report from the authorities in Croatia this Friday, March 11, that a Russian-made drone crashed in Zagreb on Thursday evening. It allegedly left Ukraine, before flying over Romania, Hungary, and finally Croatia – three EU and NATO countries – without ever being intercepted.

“This is a matter for the NATO joint command in Torrejon, Spain, which should have received all the data immediately, and reacted. However, nothing happened”, commented Croatian President Zoran Milanovic.

The Croatian head of state criticised that “a six-ton ​​aircraft, the size of a military plane, exploded in the centre of the country’s capital, Zagreb, flying around 350 miles over all that airspace from Ukraine without anyone reacting”.

Milanovic said the aircraft, which crashed without causing any casualties, flew for seven minutes through Croatian airspace, entering at 10:55pm local time. It had previously flown over Hungary for another 40 minutes .

Andrej Plenkovic, the Croatian Prime Minister, stated that his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orban, told him that the aircraft had entered Hungarian territory from Romania. Regarding the origin of the aircraft, Milanovic said that for now it is only known that it is a reconnaissance drone that most likely came from the direction of Ukraine.

Markijan Lubkjivski, the advisor to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, denied in statements to the Croatian newspaper Jutarnji list that the aircraft was Ukrainian. The device is a Russian-made drone, although it is not yet known which country it belongs to, said Robert Hranj, chief of the Croatian General Staff.

A military aviation expert had previously identified the aircraft as a Soviet-made Tu-141 Struzh reconnaissance drone used in the 1970s and 1980s. Ukraine is the only known current operator of the Tu-141, as reported by larazon.es.

https://twitter.com/ogajohnboscko/status/1502210896059379712?s=20&t=famOZ8RUaXS2d3MNGS8ihA

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