Nova TV: No trace of explosives found on Soviet drone that crashed in Zagreb

Slavko Midzor/PIXSELL

No traces of explosive have been found on the Soviet-era military drone that crashed in Zagreb two weeks ago, Nova TV said on Tuesday evening citing sources close to the investigation.

“The examination did not find any traces of explosive on the parts that were analyzed,” the television channel said briefly in its prime-time evening news program.

The finding contradicted the statements by the government and the Ministry of Defense, which continue to claim that the reconnaissance drone, believed to have flown some 600 kilometers from Ukraine, was armed with a bomb.

The Ministry of the Interior and the State Attorney’s Office did not reply to Nova TV’s request for comment.

The drone crashed near a student dormitory in the Jarun area in southwest Zagreb shortly after 11 pm on 10 March, damaging about 40 cars in a car park, but causing no injuries. It came from Ukraine, having flown at least 600 kilometers over NATO member countries Romania and Hungary before crashing in the Croatian capital after running out of fuel.

It is still unknown whether the drone belonged to Ukrainian or Russian forces.

In spite of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s claim, supported by aviation experts, who said that the drone was not armed, Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, kept insisting that the drone was indeed armed. He said last week that the government had “reliable and verified information” that the drone was armed “with a bomb” that had “mostly likely exploded underground.”

The crash site featured a crater some 3 meters in diameter, and experts appearing in local media all dismissed the claim, as reconnaissance drones are rarely equipped with weapons.