Romania: Two Drones Fall on Its Territory, One Had to Be Shot Down

Two drones crashed on Romanian territory on Friday — both incidents occurred in Tulcea County, near the border with Ukraine, the country's defence ministry reported based on emergency call data.

The first drone came down near the village of Luncavița, roughly five kilometres from the Ukrainian border, crashing directly onto the grounds of the Cetățuia quarry. It exploded on impact and sparked a fire. According to Romania's defence ministry, radar systems failed to detect the aircraft because it was flying too low, and the region's mountainous terrain may have made detection even harder.

An Exposed Weak Spot

The incident laid bare a vulnerability in the country's air defence system. "We are forced to accept a reality that cannot be denied: the war unleashed by Russian aggression against Ukraine is also affecting our borders," said Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.

He said such incidents are regrettable, but the government is becoming ever more aware of the need to equip the army with anti-drone combat systems as soon as possible.

Second Drone Shot Down by the Military

Later that same day, another drone was recorded going down in the Greci area, also in Tulcea County. This time, a special team from Romania's Ministry of National Defence dealt with it — the drone was destroyed at 20:13 local time (19:13 Prague time).

Bucharest has not yet disclosed exactly what type of aircraft these were. However, since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, wreckage from dozens of Russian drones has repeatedly been found on Romanian soil.

The day before, on Thursday, authorities evacuated an area near the port city of Costinești because of drone debris. On the same day, NATO fighter jets scrambled in response to Russian drones heading toward the river border between the Ukrainian region and Romania's Tulcea County.

According to available data, Russian drones have entered Romanian airspace several dozen times, and their wreckage has been found roughly 50 times. The most serious incident occurred in May this year, when a Russian drone struck a residential building in the city of Galați, injuring two people.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz