The unmanned aircraft of Russian origin that crashed on Wednesday night in Zagreb from Ukraine – after flying over Romania, Hungary and Croatia – was carrying an explosive charge , the Croatian Minister of Defense, Mario Banozic, reported today.
Until now, it has not been possible to determine the origin of the six-ton device, whether it was from the Russian or the Ukrainian side, since both deny having launched it, although Croatian technicians have recovered the black box and hope to obtain more information in the coming days.
“Traces of explosives have been found and also indications that it was not a reconnaissance aircraft,” the minister told the press.
In any case, Banozic stressed that this information is still incomplete and that they still need the final report from the technicians with the analysis of the black box and the explosives.
The drone crashed after flying over Romania, Hungary and Croatia, three NATO countries , without encountering obstacles or arousing any type of reaction, the Government of Zagreb criticized yesterday.
The Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, has sent letters to the leaders of the European Union and NATO in which he calls for greater alert and coordination so that unknown devices cannot fly over NATO countries or reach European cities inadvertently.
The aircraft weighed six tons and measured 14 meters long, it was launched from Ukraine, to briefly fly over Romania, Hungary for about 45 minutes, and Croatia, for 7 minutes, until crashing in a park in the capital.
Plenkovic warned that 50 meters from the site of the fall there were a residence for university students, a nightclub and restaurants, so it was fortunate that there were no casualties.
