jasdooit

A military official from Greece stated that the unmanned aerial vehicle, discovered this week near the island of Lefkada, could have belonged to Ukraine. Kyiv has confirmed the use of drones to attack Russian oil tankers in the Mediterranean.

Greece attributed the finding of a sea drone this week near the Ionian island of Lefkada to a “foreign state” on Saturday.

“You observed a drone from another nation that was recovered beyond Greek territorial waters a few days back… we are aware of its identity, and we have a general idea of its contents,” Defense Minister Nikos Dendias stated during a meeting of the governing New Democracy party in Thessaloniki.

A vessel was discovered by a fisherman within a seaside cave on Thursday and subsequently transferred to a naval base on the mainland for examination, according to public broadcaster ERT.

Military specialists secured the drone for transportation to Athens following the discovery of explosives on board, according to a report by AFP news agency, which cited a Greek military official.

Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil tankers associated with a drone

The source mentioned that the autonomous surface vessel “looks like” a Magura-class maritime drone utilized by Ukraine’s military in attacks on Russian vessels in Crimea.

Kyiv has also verified that it struck a Russian “shadow fleet” oil vessel using aerial drones in the Mediterranean.

A Ukrainian intelligence source reported that one of the tankers, the QENDIL, was hit in December and “suffered significant damage.”

A maritime security source, quoted by Reuters news agency, stated that the drone could have been part of a bigger consignment or may have gone off course due to a signal malfunction.

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar

Writer: Nik Martin (AFP, AP, Reuters)