Romania intercepted and destroyed a drone on Sunday, marking the third such incident involving NATO aircraft dealing with uncrewed aerial vehicles in recent days. Romanian President Nicușor Dan confirmed that a Romanian F-16 fighter jet downed the drone at 10:13 a.m. local time near the border with southwestern Ukraine.
Bucharest frequently reports drone incursions from Ukraine, particularly when Russian forces target Ukrainian ports along the Danube River, which serves as a natural boundary between Romania and Ukraine. Romania’s land border with Ukraine stretches approximately 400 miles.
Drones entering NATO airspace have not been regarded as attacks on the alliance, thus not prompting collective response discussions among all 32 member countries. However, these continued intrusions have motivated NATO countries situated in Eastern Europe to enhance their anti-drone defenses.
Romania’s defense ministry confirmed that the drone was downed “safely” within Romania’s territorial waters, a little over seven miles northeast of the port of Sulina.
Romanian officials have not verified whether the drone on Sunday was Russian-made. Nonetheless, President Dan expressed that it was “intolerable for the Russian Federation to continue violating Romania’s airspace, which is, simultaneously, NATO and EU airspace.”
On Saturday, another drone was intercepted and destroyed in an unpopulated area near Ukraine’s border after being detected by radar systems at 8:22 a.m. local time. This event followed a previous operation on Friday when NATO scrambled two Romanian F-16s and two Italian Eurofighter jets to intercept a drone near Romania’s airspace. Romanian investigators later identified the drone as Russian-made.
Debris from the intercepted drone and the missile landed near two towns northeast of Bucharest, with no casualties reported, according to Romania’s defense ministry.
The governor of Ukraine’s southwestern Odesa region, adjoining Romania, issued several air raid alerts on Sunday for areas along the border. Meanwhile, Russia’s defense ministry announced Sunday that it had struck the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk, southwest of Odesa, targeting fuel tanks utilized by the Ukrainian military.
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