Possibly Russian Tupolev: Mystery of drone crash in Zagreb

An unmanned drone has crashed in Croatia. It is said to be a “military object of Russian design”. It is unclear where the drone came from and how it was able to cross the airspace of several NATO countries unmolested.

Zagreb last night. Around 11 p.m., a loud bang shook a park in the Jarun district. Residents are fleeing their homes, some spending the night outdoors. There were no injuries, some parked cars were badly damaged. What remains is a three meter wide and one meter deep crater and debris scattered widely. Photos also show two parachutes caught in trees near the site of the blast.

A student was an eyewitness: “We were on our way home and then saw a red light and heard a hissing noise. Then suddenly there was a bang. We saw people flee – and a hole with a lot of metal in it.”

Investigations at the crash site

Weapons experts were already speaking up in the morning, assuming that an unmanned drone used in Ukraine could have crashed. Experts from the Ministry of the Interior and the military police are investigating at the crash site, and the National Security Council is meeting in Zagreb.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic confirmed the incident. It was an unmanned military object of Russian design: “At the moment I don’t know for sure whether it was owned by the Russian or the Ukrainian army. It came to Croatia from Hungary,” says Plenkovic. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said it came to Hungary from Romania. “We can’t say with certainty at the moment why that happened, whether it was a mistake or a loss of control,” continued Plenkovic.

Milanovic: “Serious incident”

Croatia’s President Zoran Milanovic does not assume a targeted attack on Croatia, but speaks of a serious incident. “This is currently the subject of serious investigations, especially in countries where the aircraft was in the air for a long time. In Croatia it was very short and it is questionable whether we could have done anything with our equipment.”

There are now increasing indications that the flying object could have been a Tupolev m141 reconnaissance drone. The six-ton ​​device has a range of 1000 kilometers and lands with the help of parachutes. According to the Croatian Ministry of Defense, the drone was produced from the 1960s to almost the 1990s and is still used today in the former Soviet Union.

According to the Croatian media, the Ukrainian embassy in Zagreb has not commented on the incident. Markijan Lubkivsky speaks up on Croatian television. He was once the Ukrainian ambassador to Croatia and is now an advisor to the Ukrainian defense minister: “The aircraft that crashed in Zagreb does not belong to Ukraine. Ukrainian aircraft have different markings. We will ask our Croatian partners to initiate investigations so that the truth can be established can be.”

Has the NATO air defense system failed?

The question remains unanswered as to how it can happen that such a drone crosses the airspace of several NATO countries without countermeasures and whether NATO’s centrally controlled air defense system has failed.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Sijarto wrote on his Facebook page that the Hungarian authorities were investigating the incident. Hungary is in close contact with NATO and Croatia in this regard. The Romanian Ministry of Defense also confirmed that a “small flying object” stayed in national airspace for almost three minutes. Because of the short time, the high speed and the low altitude, it was not possible to identify the flying object.

Air surveillance apparently not warned

Admiral Robert Hranj, Chief of Staff of the Croatian Army, said Croatian air surveillance had not been warned, but had seen the drone during its approximately seven-minute stay in Croatian airspace.

He explains why there was no defense reaction: “As you know, Croatia has an air defense system. But it has certain limitations. That’s why an intensive modernization of the air defense system is being planned.”