The drone's flight over Croatia, Hungary and Romania (all three being NATO states) prompted criticism of the countries' defense systems as the UAV was detected but not cleared.

In response, the Croatian government restricted airspace over populous cities and received military support from France and the United States who dispatched multiple fighter-jets to Croatia days later for joint exercises.

[12] After spending seven minutes in Croatian airspace, it crashed in the Jarun neighborhood of the capital, some 50 m (160 ft) away from the Stjepan Radić Student Residence Hall of Zagreb University.

[13][14][15] The Seismological Service of Croatia recorded seismic waves at the time of the UAV's impact with an epicenter very close to the actual crash site.

The next morning, American analyst Tyler Rogoway identified the aircraft to most likely be a Soviet era Tupolev Tu-141,[18] which was corroborated by Cyrillic inscriptions and red star insignia found on the scattered debris near the crash site.

[22] In an interview on 13 March, the Croatian Minister of Defence Mario Banožić confirmed that parts belonging to an explosive device were found in the debris of the drone.

[28][29] The slow or non-existent reaction from air defence services caused outrage among the Croatian media and public,[30][31] with some comparing the incident to Mathias Rust's flight to the Red Square in 1987.

[35] The Mayor of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomašević, held a press conference regarding the incident and commented that "no people were hurt during the impact, but there is some property damage".

"[37][38][39] The Croatian online newspaper Index.hr suggested the drone may have been meant to fly to a location in Ukraine called Yarun' [uk; de; pl] rather than the Zagreb neighborhood of Jarun, which sounds similar.

[42] On 12 March, the Croatian daily newspaper Jutarnji list wrote that Croatia might ask the United States to deploy their Patriot missile systems in the country.

[43] Croatian military expert and former defence minister deputy Nikola Brzica commented, "Armed Forces of Croatia have at least two systems in their inventory, which could have brought down such a simple target, yet they weren't used.

[44] Ukrainian Defence Minister's adviser Markiyan Lubkivsky, in a statement to Croatian media, denied that the UAV which crashed in Zagreb belongs to Ukraine.

[50] A joint exercise between the Croatian Air Force and French pilots from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle was held on 15 March 2022.

[4] Later that day, Croatian president and commander-in-chief Zoran Milanović published a statement announcing that he had given an order to the Chief of the General Staff Admiral Robert Hranj whereby overflights of military aircraft over Zagreb and the country's other cities would be "strictly forbidden".