Crash of a Ukrainian plane with weapons in Greece: How the situation is developing

The story of the crash of the Ukrainian AN-12 plane in northern Greece continues to be discussed in the Balkan media. After the plane crash, detonation occurred and explosions were heard for several hours - it is officially recognized that the plane was transporting more than 11 tons of weapons and ammunition from the Serbian city of Nis to Bangladesh. The supplier was the Serbian company Valor doo

Formally, the owner and director of this company, founded in December 2019, is Mladen Bogdanovic, who confirmed to Serbian media that the cargo on the plane was a batch of training and lighting mines, the export of which was carried out under a 2021 contract with the Bangladesh Ministry of Defense. The ammunition was supposed to be used to train military personnel of the army of this Asian country.

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However, soon after the plane crash, various information began to appear. At first, doctors and journalists could not arrive at the crash site for several hours. This was explained by the fact that an unknown white powder was found in the wreckage, as a result, specialists in biological and radioactive protection were called. Residents of surrounding settlements were advised not to open windows and stay at home.

The next day, Athens demanded additional explanations from Belgrade. Serbian authorities have provided information about the cargo and destination of the Ukrainian plane that crashed near Kavala.

However, citing a government source, Athens media reported that Greece is asking Serbia for an answer as to why the country was not informed in a timely manner about what was being transported by the plane.

The Greek newspaper Kathimerini reports that Greece has addressed the Ukrainian authorities with the same request.

“This may mean that something is wrong, that there may be something suspicious with this transport,” Nikos Pelpas, a Belgrade-based correspondent for the Greek state service ERT, told US Radio Free Europe.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic responded by saying that Serbia has nothing to hide.

“Everything is as clear as a tear. All procedures have been followed. The plane was carrying training and illumination grenades for Bangladesh, as confirmed by their government. Unfortunately, there was a tragic traffic accident,” Vucic said on July 18.

Serbian Defense Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said on July 17 that the military goods were produced by a Belgrade company and that they were delivered by an aircraft belonging to the Ukrainian cargo company Meridian.

He denied rumors from some media that the plane was transporting weapons to Ukraine.

Previously, President Vučić stated that Serbia would not send weapons to Ukraine and would not allow weapons to be imported into this country through Serbian territory.

However, Greek journalist Nikos Pelpas puts forward versions of why Athens was not informed about such a cargo.

“At the same time, we can talk about more serious things. Let's say the product officially goes to Bangladesh, but the end consumer is someone else. Or that in addition to training mines they were carrying something else. Many questions arise if you try to “secretly” move goods between countries,” Pelpas noted.

In his opinion, it is indicative that the case of the An-12 crash, in which all eight crew members died, is under the jurisdiction of the prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Greece. This also indicates the seriousness of the situation, because the local jurisdiction of the provincial courts would be sufficient.