The Romanian Ministry of Defense announced that on Saturday, it scrambled two F-16 fighter jets after a drone violated the country’s airspace during a Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure near the border.
“The drone did not fly over populated areas and did not pose an immediate threat to the population,” the ministry said in a statement.
According to the report, residents in southeastern Tulcea County, near the Danube and the border with Ukraine, were advised to take shelter. Romanian jets detected the drone in national airspace and tracked it until it disappeared from radar 20 kilometers southwest of Chilia Veche village.
Romania, an EU and NATO member sharing a 650-kilometer border with Ukraine, has repeatedly seen Russian drones enter its territory since the start of the war.
Meanwhile, Poland also responded by scrambling Polish and allied fighter jets due to a similar drone threat and closed Lublin Airport, just three days after shooting down Russian drones in its airspace with NATO support, according to Reuters.
NATO announced on Friday that it would strengthen defenses on the eastern flank of Europe following the incident in Poland. This marked the first known case of a NATO member shooting down a drone during the war in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Romanian lawmakers approved a law allowing the military to shoot down drones that illegally enter airspace in peacetime, based on the level of threat and risk to life and property, though according to Reuters, implementation regulations have not yet been finalized.
