NATO warplanes were scrambled today after a suspected Russian drone crashed following an encroachment of Romanian airspace.
Footage showed a dramatic explosion believed to be at a port on the Ukrainian side of the River Danube, which forms the frontier with Romania.
But reports in Bucharest said the same wave of attacks that a Putin drone had crashed near Tulcea county on the Romanian side of the border.
The Russian incursion triggered the response by NATO fighters, and an air raid warning to residents close to the Danube in Romania.
Residents were told to take shelter in safe areas for 90 minutes during an alert warning that objects could still be falling from the sky.
File image shows a Rafale B standard F4 fighter jet of France’s air force flies as part of NATO’s Enhanced Air Policing (eAP) mission in the Baltic States, on Dezember 17, 2024
Moment a Russian drone is seen exploding at a Ukrainian port on the River Danube as another Putin UAV is reported to have hit NATO territory in Romania triggering the scrambling of Western warplanes
The Romanian defence ministry said: ‘At 1:35 a.m., two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force, part of the Air Police Combat Service, took off from the 86th Air Base in Borcea to monitor the air situation.
‘The aircraft returned to base around 3:48 a.m.’
NATO structures were kept fully abreast of the suspected illegal incursion by Russia, said Romanian officials.
‘The Ministry of National Defence sends a firm message of condemnation of these attacks carried out by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian civilian objects and infrastructure elements, which are unjustified and in serious contradiction with the norms of international law,’ said a Romanian statement.
Several Russian drones were said to have been launched from Crimea, hitting the port of Chilia Nouă, near the town of Chilia Veche.
Ukraine shot down some of the Russian drones before they hit the Romanian port, Antena 3 reports.
Drone fragments and air space breaches have occurred regularly over the past year and a half as Russia has attacked Ukraine’s Danube river port infrastructure.
Earlier this week, NATO warplanes were scrambled in Poland amid a wave of Russian missile and drone strikes in western Ukraine close to the alliance’s eastern flank.
Huge Tu-22 and Tu-95 strategic bombers had been bombing Ukraine close to the border with Poland before NATO jets took off.
The onslaught was seen as instant revenge for Tuesday’s Ukrainian aerial strikes on Russia, the heaviest of the almost three year war.
In particular, Putin was rattled by Ukraine’s use of British Storm Shadow and American ATACMS missiles which hit key defence facilities including a chemical plant in Bryansk region.
NATO forces went on full alert in Poland with warplanes scrambled, the country’s operational command headquarters said.
A Scramble is ‘triggered when an aircraft is flying an invalid or incorrect flight plan; fails to or loses communication with the relevant air traffic control authority; or fails to communicate with the air traffic control authorities using the transponder’, according to NATO.
