Romania Says It Shot Down Second Drone Breaching Its Airspace

Romania announced on Saturday that it had shot down a second drone that violated its national airspace within a 24-hour period. The incident occurred in a sparsely populated area close to the border with Ukraine.

This follows Friday's downing of a drone, which Romanian prosecutors investigating its fragments identified as Russian. This marked the first time the NATO member state had taken such action after numerous previous airspace breaches. President Nicusor Dan confirmed on social media that the second drone was shot down at 8:30 a.m. local time, approximately 10 kilometers west of Sfantu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta.

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the second drone had been shot down at 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT), 10 km (6 miles) west of Sfantu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta.

The defense ministry reported that radar detected the airspace breach at 8:22 a.m., prompting the scramble of two F-16 fighter jets. While Saturday's drone origin remains unspecified, prosecutors confirmed the drone downed on Friday was Russian.

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the airspace breach had been spotted by radar at 8:22 a.m., and two F-16 fighter jets had been scrambled.

Romania, which shares a 650-kilometer border with Ukraine, has stated that Russian drones have entered its airspace around 30 times since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Previously, in May, a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building in the southeastern Romanian town of Galati, near the Ukrainian border, injuring two people. That incident was the first time a strike had hit a densely populated area in a NATO country and caused injuries during the conflict.

On Friday, General Gheorghita Vlad, the Romanian army's chief of staff, noted an increase in Russian attacks on the region around Ukraine's port of Odesa, particularly ahead of the harvest season. He suggested these attacks further pressure key energy and trade routes in the Black Sea.

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Russian attacks on the region around the Ukrainian port of Odesa had increased ahead of the harvest season, further pressuring key energy and trade routes in the Black Sea.