Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias on Wednesday described a recent incident involving an alleged Ukrainian maritime drone discovered near the island of Lefkada, off western Greece, as “extremely dangerous,” saying Kyiv owes Athens “a big apology” over the risk posed to shipping.
“I am not going to comment on the findings report,” Dendias said, adding: “What I must say is that this was something extremely dangerous. It was a Ukrainian sea drone. Ukraine owes us a big apology.”
Referring to discussions held during a recent NATO summit, Dendias said the incident could have had catastrophic consequences had a cruise ship been struck.
“As I said at the NATO summit, if it had hit a cruise ship, it would have sunk it. How many deaths would we have been mourning? It is completely unacceptable,” he said.
Greek authorities have spent days investigating the unmanned surface vessel discovered earlier this month in a sea cove near Lefkada after fishermen spotted it with its engine reportedly still running. According to local reports, military investigators concluded the drone was of Ukrainian origin and carried roughly 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives.
Patriot A/A batteries
Dendias also addressed reports surrounding the redeployment of Patriot missile systems from the southeast Aegean island of Karpathos, rejecting Turkish claims that the original deployment was directed against Ankara.
“They were not deployed there to address any Turkish threat, but missiles from Iran,” he said.
The defense minister added that the deployment formed part of Greece’s operational planning linked to instability in the Middle East and was carried out as a sovereign national decision.
