Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, confirmed that the object which crashed in the Jarun area of southwest Zagreb late on Thursday was a Russian-made military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), adding that it is not yet known whether it was used by the Russian or Ukrainian military forces.

Speaking to reporters in Paris on Friday, Plenkovic said that he had already discussed the incident with Croatia’s Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, Defense Minister, Mario Banozic, President Zoran Milanovic, the Mayor of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomasevic, as well as the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban.

The reconnaissance drone, which is 14 meters long and weighs 6 tons, is thought to have flown all the way from Ukraine through Hungary before crashing into a residential area in Zagreb. Military analysts have identified it as a Tu-141 drone, used by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s. Ukraine is the only known operator of this type of aircraft, although Russia also has some warehoused units which may have been used as decoys in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

According to Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, the drone had entered Hungarian airspace from Romania. Hungary, Romania, and Croatia are all members of Nato, so the incident raised questions about the air surveillance and air defence capabilities of the alliance.

“Why it happened, was it due to an error, or loss of control, we cannot say for sure at this moment, but we do know that the drone was flying over Croatia for several minutes before crashing down in Zagreb,” Plenkovic said.

“Fortunately, there were no casualties because the drone fell in an area where there are no houses or apartment buildings (in the immediate vicinity)… We have contacted Ukrainian authorities to see if they know how did this drone reach Zagreb. In any case, we will make a maximum effort to find out why it came and crashed in Zagreb,” Plenkovic said.

According to data released by the Croatian Defense Ministry, the aircraft had entered the country’s airspace a few minutes before 11 pm on Thursday evening, at a speed of 700 kilometers per hour and flying at an altitude of 1,300 meters. Police confirmed they have recovered two parachutes in the vicinity of the crash site, with the crash itself leaving a large crater upon impact with the asphalted road, some 3 meters in diameter.

Croatia and Ukraine are separated by Hungary. Zagreb is about 600 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border as the crow flies, and about 750 kilometers from the largest city in southwest Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk, which was hit by Russian airstrikes early on Friday morning.

“This is an unprecedented event, something like this has never happened in Zagreb. In a situation when people of Zagreb have already been traumatized by the (March 2020) earthquake and the pandemic, an incident like this can certainly not be pleasant… Nobody was hurt and that is good. It was quite a large drone. Considering the time of day and where the debris fell, it is really unbelievable that nobody was hurt,” Zagreb Mayor, Tomislav Tomasevic, told reporters at an emergency news conference on Friday.