BUCHAREST (Reuters) – A Russian drone may have breached the national airspace of NATO member Romania for “a very brief period of under three minutes” overnight during an attack on neighbouring Ukraine, the Romanian defence ministry said on Friday.
The drone attack on the southern Ukrainian town of Izmail, just across the Danube river from Romania, killed three people and injured 14, Odesa regional prosecutors said on Friday. The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 24 of 32 drones.
“Romania’s radar system has identified the possibility that one of the drones involved in the attack on Ukraine intersected Romanian air space for a very brief period of under three minutes in… the border area,” the Romanian ministry said.
Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and two Spanish F-18s which are carrying out air policing missions in the country for the rest of the year. Residents of the southeastern Romanian county of Tulcea were warned to take cover.
Romania shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine. It has had Russian drone fragments fall onto its territory repeatedly over the past year, mostly after being destroyed by Ukrainian air defences, Romania’s defence ministry has said.
However, on Sept. 8, both Romania and Latvia had their airspace breached by Russian drones, prompting worries of escalation.
Defence ministers from countries on NATO’s eastern flank called this month for a robust coordinated response from the alliance to drone airspace breaches, including implementing a rotational integrated air and missile defence (IAMD) Model.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; editing by Gareth Jones)
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