Mystery sea drone in Greece is from ‘foreign state’: minister

Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

ATHENS - A sea drone found this week off the Greek Ionian island of Lefkada is from a “foreign state”, the defence minister said on Saturday, as a military source said explosives had been found on board.

“You saw a drone belonging to a foreign country that was retrieved outside Greek territorial waters a few days ago... we know what it is, and we more or less know what it contains,” Defence Minister Nikos Dendias told a conference of the ruling New Democracy party in Thessaloniki.

A Greek military source told AFP that army and navy experts had been making the drone safe for transport to Athens after explosives were found on board.

The source said the unmanned surface vehicle “resembles” a Magura-class sea drone used by Ukraine’s armed forces against Russian ships in the Crimea.

The Greek coastguard on Friday said it had taken custody of the drone after it was towed to a Lefkada port by fishermen, before handing it over to the armed forces.

Greek media have reported that it was found on Thursday with its engine still running.

Ukraine has admitted 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 the neutral sea since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) source said the strike was a “new, unprecedented special operation” -- Kyiv’s first in the Mediterranean, carried out around 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) from the country’s borders.

It claimed the tanker, the QENDIL, had “sustained critical damage.”