Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias demanded “clear explanations” from Ukraine after a drone carrying explosives was discovered near the western Greek island of Lefkada, warning that the incident posed a serious threat to maritime safety in one of the Mediterranean’s busiest shipping corridors. Speaking during a visit to the small eastern Aegean island of Agathonisi, Dendias said Greece was treating the matter with the utmost seriousness and would forward the findings of its investigation to prosecutors through the Hellenic Coast Guard.
“This was a vessel carrying explosives that endangered the safety of navigation,” Dendias said. “I do not want to think about what the consequences would have been if a passenger ferry or any other ship had collided with this drone.”
The Greek minister said Kyiv had committed to providing explanations through Ukraine’s defense ministry, adding that Athens expected a full accounting of how the drone ended up in Greek waters.
The episode comes at a delicate moment for Greece, which has supported Ukraine politically and militarily since Russia’s invasion, while simultaneously trying to contain rising tensions with neighboring Turkey over maritime boundaries and territorial rights in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.
Without directly linking the drone incident to broader regional disputes, Dendias used the occasion to criticize what he described as “revisionist ambitions” and unilateral claims that violate international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
“All our islands have exactly the rights provided for under the Convention on the Law of the Sea—no more and no less,” he said, in remarks widely interpreted as directed at Ankara’s longstanding objections to Greece’s maritime claims around its islands.
Dendias said the Aegean “can be a sea of friendship and cooperation,” but only if all parties adhere to internationally recognized legal rules.
The defense minister was visiting Agathonisi to inaugurate military housing projects aimed at improving living conditions for armed forces personnel stationed on remote islands near the Turkish coast.
