A Russian drone has reportedly breached the airspace of a NATO country during an overnight bombardment targeting Ukraine. Romania’s Defence Ministry said its air defences identified two targets in the border area of Tulcea county during attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, one of which entered its airspace.
The ministry said it lost contact with the target over an uninhabited area in what it called “a serious violation of the norms of international law. It said in a statement: “One of the targets entered the airspace of our country, the radar contact with it being lost 16 km southeast of Chilia Veche over an uninhabited area.
“We strongly condemn the actions of the Russian Federation that endanger regional security, constituting a serious violation of the norms of international law”
A team has been sent to investigate the area following the alert, which began just after midnight local time on Friday and ended at 2.48am.
Tulcea is directly across the border from the Ukrainian port of Izmail, which has been a target for Russian attacks, and is bordered by the River Danube.
Emergency alerts were sent out across northern parts of Tulcea just after 3.45am local time on Tuesday, and ended about an hour later.
The country’s Ministry of National Defence said: “Two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force from the Air Police Combat Service took off from the 86th Air Base in Fetești, and the air defence systems were put into firing positions.
The government confirmed that none of the Russian drones breached Romanian airspace.
Ukrainian authorities said Russia “massively attacked” civilian and port infrastructure, damaging facilities at Izmail and a Panamanian-flagged ship. There were no casualties.
