A military sea drone, laden with explosives, discovered last week on a Greek island is believed by investigators to have veered off course due to a technical malfunction, sources indicated on Friday.
The unmanned vessel, found by fishermen on the shores of Lefkada on 7 May, has sparked diplomatic tensions between Athens and Kyiv, with Greece asserting a Ukrainian origin, a claim officially denied by Ukraine.
Greek intelligence and military units are currently engaged in a detailed analysis of the drone, involving its dismantling and reverse engineering to ascertain its precise characteristics.
Investigators are also meticulously examining its metadata to determine its intended mission and whether it was launched from a larger vessel or from a coastal location, potentially as distant as Libya across the Mediterranean.
A security source suggested the drone likely failed to reach its designated target after experiencing a technical fault that led to a loss of orientation.
“This issue is very serious. This vessel … had explosives, endangering the safety of navigation. I don’t want to think what it would mean for a passenger ship or any ship to collide with that drone,” Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias said on Thursday, insisting that the drone is Ukrainian.
Preliminary findings suggest it did not travel a long distance, making a launch from Libya less likely, a security source said. Another official said fuel levels are a key factor in the assessment but declined to give further details.
The technical analysis is nearly complete, with only some encrypted data yet to be decoded, the source added.
Ukraine has over the past year targeted tankers in the Black Sea and beyond, including in the Mediterranean, that it says are part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” – vessels that Kyiv says are helping Moscow to escape sanctions and export oil to fund its war effort in Ukraine.
Greece has alerted the European Union to the matter.
Speaking from Brussels this week, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said Athens is ready to lodge a formal complaint once the investigation concludes.
Lefkada, off the west coast of the Greek mainland, is on a busy waterway between Greece and Italy, and is popular with tourists traveling by yacht or ferry, as well as commercial vessels