A drone entered Romanian airspace during a Russian attack on Ukraine overnight May 28-29 and crashed into the roof of an apartment building in Galați, injuring two people, Romania’s Defense Ministry said in a press release. It was the first known case of a Shahed drone striking a residential building in Romania.
The ministry said that Russia resumed drone attacks on civilian and infrastructure targets in Ukraine near the river border with Romania overnight into May 29. One of the drones entered Romanian airspace and was tracked by radar as far as the southern part of Galați before crashing into the roof of a residential building, sparking a fire. Two people were injured.
Emergency crews, Interior Ministry personnel, Romanian intelligence officers, and police were working at the scene. The Defense Ministry said its radars detected other drones approaching the country’s borders. At 1:19 a.m., two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from the 86th Air Base in Fetești, supported by an IAR 330 SOCAT helicopter from the Romanian Air Force. The ministry said pilots were authorized to engage targets throughout the alert.
The National Military Command Center notified Romania’s emergency authorities, and RO-Alert emergency messages were sent to the residents of Tulcea, Galați, and Brăila counties. The ministry said the situation was developing and that it would release further information as it became available.
“Russia’s reckless behaviour is a danger to us all,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte wrote on social media after a call with the Romanian president, Nicuşor Dan. “I affirmed that Nato stands ready to defend every inch of allied territory.”
Russian drones had previously violated Romanian airspace in September last year, when two Romanian fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a UAV in the country’s airspace.
