Romania scrambled NATO fighter jets after a drone entered its airspace during a large-scale Russian missile and drone attack on neighboring Ukraine, raising fresh concerns about the spillover of the war into NATO territory.
Romania’s Defense Ministry said military radar detected a group of aerial targets near the Ukrainian border, north of the eastern county of Tulcea, at 2:23 a.m. local time on Thursday.
Two Spanish F-18 fighter jets stationed in Romania as part of NATO’s air-policing mission were scrambled to monitor the situation. A Romanian IAR-330 SOCAT military helicopter was also deployed on a reconnaissance mission, while authorities issued an alert to residents in the affected area.
According to the ministry, at 3:21 a.m. a drone entered Romanian airspace approximately 13 kilometers east of Galați, a city close to Romania’s borders with Ukraine and Moldova.
Three minutes later, the crew of the Romanian helicopter reported that the drone had crashed about four kilometers northeast of the village of Grindu in Tulcea County.
The crash triggered a fire, which extinguished itself. No casualties or damage were reported, and a military team was dispatched to secure and inspect the crash site.
The incident occurred as Russia launched a major wave of missile and drone attacks against Ukraine, highlighting the continued risk of Russian attacks spilling across the borders of NATO member states.
Romania, which shares a long border with Ukraine along the Danube, has repeatedly detected drones and debris linked to Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure in the border region.
