A military sea drone found last week off the Greek Ionian island of Lefkada is Ukrainian and represented a threat to navigation, the Greek defence minister said Tuesday.
While in Brussels, Nikos Dendias said he had briefed European counterparts on the “drone that we fished in Greece”, adding that “we have certainty” that it was of Ukrainian origin.
Dendias said the incident “affects the freedom of navigation, and affects also the security of navigation”.
“That is an extremely serious issue.”
The Greek coastguard on Friday said it had initially taken custody of the sea drone after it was found by fishermen Thursday and towed to a Lefkada port, before handing it over to the armed forces.
A Greek military source over the weekend told AFP that army and navy experts had found explosives on board.
Officials had earlier said that the unmanned surface vehicle resembled a Magura-class sea drone used by Ukraine’s armed forces against Russian ships in the Crimea.
Dendias on Tuesday noted that the Ukrainian defence minister attended the EU ministers’ meeting via videolink.
Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said before an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday: “Greece will not allow military activity to develop in the wider Mediterranean region, particularly in its vicinity…
“Greece will take all necessary steps to ensure, unequivocally, that the Mediterranean does not become a theatre of military operations,” he added in a statement.
Ukraine has admitted to targeting Russian tankers in the Mediterranean.
In December, Kyiv said it had hit a Russian “shadow fleet” tanker with aerial drones in the Mediterranean, its first strike in that sea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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