A drone crashed in Romania on Friday after entering the country’s airspace undetected. Romanian authorities said there were no reports of casualties or material damage.
Romania’s Ministry of National Defence said it had received an emergency call regarding a drone that crashed near Luncavița in the east of the country, approximately five kilometres from the border with Ukraine.
According to the ministry, the drone was not detected by radar systems because it was flying at very low altitude. It crashed in a wooded area.
The incident occurred on the same day that an Italian Eurofighter, operating as part of NATO’s air-policing mission in the Baltic region, shot down a foreign drone in Latvian airspace.
According to NATO’s Air Command, two Italian Eurofighters were scrambled from Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania, alongside two Turkish F-16s operating from Ämari Air Base in Estonia, to identify and intercept the drone. Latvian authorities said the drone had entered the country’s airspace as a result of Russian electronic warfare and was intercepted in the Balvi area.
Romania, which borders Ukraine and lies on the Black Sea, has faced an increasing number of drone-related incidents since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Earlier this week, Romanian military divers carried out controlled detonations of two Gerbera-type drones in the Black Sea, near the Neptun Deep gas project. In July, Romanian F-16 fighter jets shot down three drones over a period of three days. In June, a Ukrainian naval drone exploded in the port of Constanța.
In May, a Russian drone carrying explosives crashed in the city of Galați, starting a fire in a residential building and injuring two people. NATO and European officials have condemned the incidents and expressed their support for Romania and other countries on the alliance’s eastern flank.
The North Atlantic Council met on Wednesday to discuss the latest incidents in Eastern Europe. NATO stated that Russia bears full responsibility for violations of allied airspace and described such actions as dangerous and unacceptable.
The alliance also reiterated that it remains prepared to deter and defend its territory against any form of aggression.
