Romania's Defence Ministry "strongly condemns" another Russian drone attack near country's border
Romania's Ministry of National Defence has sent a "strong message of condemnation" following another Russian drone attack on Ukrainian facilities and civilian infrastructure near the Romanian border.
According to Digi24, the Romanian Ministry of Defence considers these attacks "unjustified and seriously contrary to international law".
"As a result of the detection of groups of drones approaching the airspace of Ukraine, near the airspace of Romania, the National Military Command Centre (core) informed the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations about taking measures to alert the population of Tulcea County; RO-Alert messages were sent at 02:01," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
Two Romanian F-16 fighter jets from the Borca base and two Spanish F-18s from the Mihail Kogalniceanu base were taken into the air "to monitor the situation", the ministry said.
All four warplanes landed at the airbase at around 04:00.
During this period of time, the Romanian radar surveillance system indicated the possibility that one of the drones involved in the attack on the Ukrainian targets had crossed national airspace in the border area with Ukraine for a very short period of time, less than three minutes, at around 03:00.
The data available at the moment reported that there were no reports of a strike zone on Romanian territory. The Ministry of National Defence forces have been searching the area since this morning with the help of air assets and ground teams.
Three people were killed and 14 others injured as a result of a morning Russian strike on the city of Izmail in Odesa Oblast.
On the night of 26-27 September, Russian forces launched 32 Shahed loitering munitions, an Iskander ballistic missile and two Kh-22 cruise missiles on Ukraine. Ukrainian air defence units have shot down 24 of the Shaheds.
One drone entered Romanian airspace, and three more Russian UAVs disappeared from the radar as a result of electronic warfare countermeasures by the Ukrainian defence forces.