Greece demands apology from Ukraine over found sea drone

Greece’s Defence Minister Nikos Dendias has called on Kyiv to issue “a big apology” after the discovery of an explosive-packed Ukrainian-made sea drone in a cave on the island of Lefkada in the Ionian Sea, The Guardian reports.

Dendias described the unmanned device as “extremely dangerous” and said an inquiry had established that “there is not the slightest doubt” it was Ukrainian in origin.

“There’s not the slightest doubt that it’s an Ukrainian sea drone, we know what type it is and where it was manufactured,” Dendias said at a conference in Athens. “Ukraine owes us a big apology and apart from an apology it owes us an absolute assurance that something like this will not happen again in the wider region.”

Military experts reportedly concluded that the device had drifted off course. Dendias had earlier said the drone was certain to have been launched “from a foreign state,” without specifying its origin.

The defence minister said the long-range kamikaze drone was believed to have been carrying explosives, with media reports estimating it held around 100kg of dynamite.

“If any cruise ship had been travelling down from Venice to the east Mediterranean, exactly on the same course as the drone and the drone hit, the ship would have sunk to the bottom of the sea,” he said.

Dendias said he had raised the issue at a NATO meeting of European defence ministers in Brussels last week, warning of the risks posed by the device.

“How can anyone … regardless of the need to defend their homeland, and as Greeks we are the first to understand that, put the lives of innocent people at risk, in this case outside the theatre of war, because they believe that this serves their strategic planning? What happened was utterly unacceptable and we, and all countries in the Mediterranean, have to be clear about that,” he added.

By Vafa Guliyeva