drone ukraine
© The DriveFILE PHOTO. A Tupolev Tu-141 UAV
The military drone that crashed overnight in the Croatian capital of Zagreb apparently came from Ukraine, President Zoran Milanovic said on Friday, after chairing a meeting of the National Security Council.

The six-ton aircraft traveled through the airspace of Romania and Hungary before reaching Croatia, Milanovic claimed, citing reports he received during the meeting. It flew through Hungarian airspace for about 40 minutes.

The six-ton aircraft traveled at the speed of almost 1000 km (621 miles) per hour and spent seven minutes over Croatia, before apparently running out of fuel and crashing, the president said.

Tupolev
© Ukraine's Armed ForcesFILE PHOTO. A Tupolev Tu-141 UAV pictured during military drills in Ukraine.
Milanovic called the incident very serious, but stressed that it didn't appear to be some sort of attack against his country. He expressed relief over the fact that nobody was hurt by the crash and called on Croatians to maintain calm.

The president wondered how a relatively unsophisticated drone could spend an hour in NATO airspace without being intercepted, despite being detected by radar stations. The incident showed that the country needs to better develop its defenses, he stated.

When asked by journalists whether Zagreb would complain to Ukraine if the origin of the drone was confirmed to be Ukrainian, Milanovic said Kiev had its hands full fighting off the Russian attack.


Comment: Ukraine won't be held accountable because it has 'its hands full'? Does the same reasoning apply to the US-funded bioweapon labs in Ukraine that violated international law? Malone on US BIO Weapon Research: Are We the Good Guys or the Bad Guys Here?


"I just hope it doesn't happen again," he said.

Croatian Defense Minister Mario Banozic held a press-conference, during which he said the Croatian military didn't fail in the incident since the aircraft posed no threat to the country.


Comment: Fairly weak attempt to save face.


Admiral Robert Hranj, the Chief of the General Staff of Croatia, who spoke alongside the minister, confirmed that Zagreb didn't scramble fighter jets in response to the drone's violation of Croatian airspace, claiming that the military didn't have enough time to do so.

The aircraft that crashed in Zagreb's Jarun neighborhood on Thursday night is widely presumed to have been a Soviet-designed Tu-141 Strizh reconnaissance drone. Hranj declined to assign ownership of the unmanned plane, stating that this type of aircraft was "relatively old-fashioned and widespread in the Soviet Union since the last century."

A Tu-141 weighs about six tons, has a speed of around 1,000 km (621 miles) per hour and a range of 1,000 km. It lands with the help of a tail-mounted parachute system.

Ukraine is the only nation that officially operates Tu-141s at the moment.


Comment: Clearly Croatia's representatives are doing all they can to cover for Ukraine. If they carry on like that there may come a time where covering for the criminality of the neo-Nazi aligned military makes them culpable.


Police find parachutes near mystery crash site
drone ukraine
© Twitter / @eokhubAn unidentified object crashed near a Zagreb park overnight
Police in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, have confirmed the discovery of two parachutes near a park where a mysterious object crashed on Thursday night. No injuries on the ground were reported.

The police said they had begun to receive reports about an incident in the Jarun neighborhood, in southwestern Zagreb, from 11pm local time. Citizens had alerted the authorities about an object falling from the air and crashing to the ground.

On arriving at the scene, the police found a 3m-wide (10ft-wide) crater embedded with debris. Two parachutes were discovered during a search of the wider area.

The investigation continues, with the authorities urging the public to submit images relevant to the case. A police statement asks the media not to speculate about what has happened and to wait for official updates.


Comment: Asking reporters to not do their job? What is the Croatia government afraid of?


Closeup images circulating on social media show the crater and the debris. Croatian media outlets have circulated photos of the two parachutes at various stages of recovery.



Local media said witnesses had heard an explosion following the initial impact, and that the debris in the crater was labeled in Cyrillic script and resembled parts of an aircraft engine.

The Croatian capital is well over 500km (300 miles) away from the closest patch of Ukrainian territory, with Hungary in between.