14 March 2022 - President Zoran Milanović said on Monday that Croatia should invest more in its air defence system, after a Soviet-era unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had flown in from Ukraine and crashed in Zagreb last week.
"The investigation into the nature of the UAV that crashed in Croatia is in progress and I would not discuss details. I call on others who address the media on this matter every 15 minutes not to do so either, because they should not have been at the crash site on Saturday," Milanović, who also serves as Commander in Chief of the Croatian Armed Forces, told a special press conference.
The UAV spent seven minutes in Croatian air space before crashing near a student dorm in the Jarun district of southwest Zagreb shortly after 11 pm on Thursday, damaging about 40 cars in a nearby car park, but injuring no one. It came from Ukraine, having flown over Romania and Hungary, both NATO members.
"Right now that object poses no danger to the Croatian public. I have drawn attention to the shortcomings of the air defence system before, and now is the right time that we start developing it , and fast, even though something like this is unlikely to happen again. We have seen all the shortcomings that exist and the fact that we can rely on NATO, but this is the kind of decision that we make," Milanović said.
He said he expected the government to urgently find sufficient funding for the air defence system, noting that cheaper systems should be purchased first, and then more complex ones.
Speaking of the possible purchase of the US Patriot air defence system, Milanović said that it would be too expensive.
