Kyiv has to apologise for a Ukrainian military drone found by fishermen near a Greek island raising security concerns in Athens, the country’s defence minister said.

“Ukraine owes us a very big apology,” Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias said on Wednesday, adding that Kyiv must also assure Athens that it will not happen again.

The Ukrainian sea drone was spotted last week by fishermen near the island of Lefkada in the Ionian Sea. The drone was reportedly carrying 100 kilograms of explosives and was difficult to detect on radar.

Athens raised the issue with other EU governments at a foreign affairs meeting last week in Brussels, and it is currently preparing a démarche to Ukraine. Kyiv’s first reaction was that it would conduct an investigation into the incident.

‘Extremely dangerous’

Following an analysis of the sea drone’s GPS, Greek authorities found that it entered Greece’s territorial waters from an area close to Sicily, Italy, after a failure in its remote-control system, the Ta Nea journal reported.

The report also claimed that the sea drone was either transported across the Mediterranean by a ship or launched from a military base in Libya “with the tolerance of Turkey”.

Turkey, with a long history of tension with its Greek neighbour, has stationed a significant number of military personnel in western Libya in support of the Tripoli-based government, a close ally of Ankara.

What if a cruise ship was hit?

Greek diplomatic sources sugested that the sea drone was intended to target Russia’s shadow fleet operating in the Mediterranean. Kyiv has repeatedly complained about some Greek-owned or Greek-operated shipping companies involved in the transport of Russian oil.

Dendias said that the “extremely dangerous” incident could also have been fatal if the sea drone had hit a cruise ship carrying passengers.

“How can anyone, regardless of the need to defend their homeland, put the lives of innocent people at risk because they believe that this serves their strategic planning?” the minister asked.