Two Romanian Air Force F-16 fighter jets intercepted and destroyed two attack drones that crossed the country's airspace over the Black Sea on Saturday afternoon. Just over six minutes passed between the first detection and the second shootdown.
According to Romania's Ministry of National Defence, the first aircraft entered Romanian airspace at 5:59pm local time and was brought down within two minutes, about 25 kilometres southeast of Sulina, at the mouth of the Danube. The second was downed at 6:05pm, 20 kilometres east of the same town.
What the Romanian government says
Both jets were on an air policing mission and scrambled from the 86th Air Base at Borcea, near Fetești, after surveillance radar detected several aerial targets.
Defence Minister Radu Miruță announced the action on his Facebook account: "Two drones were engaged and shot down a few minutes ago by Romanian military pilots," he wrote, adding that the aircraft had illegally entered Romanian territory moments earlier. The statement was reported by the AFP news agency.
In a later statement, the ministry described the aircraft as jet-powered attack drones of the Geran family — the Russian designation for devices derived from the Iranian Shahed design and used on a large scale against Ukraine. Neither the ministry nor the government publicly stated that the drones were Russian; the Defence Ministry treated the episode as an airspace violation, and both Euronews and AFP described the case as spillover from the war in Ukraine.
No injuries or damage on the ground were reported.
Bucharest takes the Black Sea to NATO
Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu responded on social media by recalling the region's economic weight: the Black Sea is an export route for grain, energy and other commodities. She said NATO would address "defence and deterrence" in the Black Sea at an upcoming meeting of the alliance, and concluded: "The Black Sea will be safe again."
The episode is the latest in a series of aerial incursions recorded by Romania in recent months. In August, a drone crashed on Romanian territory after flying undetected at very low altitude; in June, a maritime drone exploded off the country's coast; in May, an aircraft struck a residential building near the Ukrainian border.
Romania has been a NATO member since 2004 and shares about 600 kilometres of border with Ukraine, much of it along the Danube, a few kilometres from the Ukrainian ports of Izmail and Reni — recurring targets of Russian attacks since the collapse of the Black Sea grain export deal.
With information from Romania's Ministry of National Defence, Euronews and AFP.
