Romania Downs Second Drone Violating Airspace Near Ukraine

Romania announced on Saturday that it had shot down a second drone violating its national airspace in a sparsely populated area near the border with Ukraine. This incident follows the downing of a first drone on Friday, which Romanian prosecutors investigating the wreckage had described as Russian.

The Romanian Ministry of Defense confirmed that the second unmanned aircraft was detected by radar at 8:22 a.m. and was shot down at 8:30 a.m., approximately 10 kilometers west of Sfântu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta region. Two F-16 fighter jets were immediately scrambled to intercept the threat. The origin of this specific drone was not immediately clarified by the ministry.

Romania, which shares a 650-kilometer land border with Ukraine, has reported numerous airspace violations by Russian drones since Moscow began targeting Ukrainian ports along the Danube River following its full-scale invasion in 2022. The country has experienced approximately 30 such violations. In May, a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building in the southeastern Romanian city of Galați, near the Ukrainian border, injuring two people. This was the first reported instance of an attack hitting a densely populated area in a NATO member state during the conflict in Ukraine.

General Gheorghiță Vlad, Chief of the Romanian General Staff, stated on Friday that Russian attacks around the Ukrainian port of Odesa have intensified, particularly in anticipation of the harvest season. These attacks are reportedly increasing pressure on key energy and trade routes in the Black Sea.