Explosion from a Russian drone on Romania territory (Picture: Oleg Nikolenko)
Romania’s foreign ministry summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires after debris of drones were found inside the Nato member’s border for the second time in a week.
For months, Vladimir Putin has been unleashing his Iranian-made Shahed drones on Ukraine’s largest ports for exporting grain, inching closer and closer to EU and Nato territory.
Earlier this week, Oleg Nikolenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s ministry of defence released a picture of a detonation on Romanian shores, claiming it was caused by Russian drone fragments.
After initially denying the reports, Romania acted with fury as authorities found asecond set of shards to have crashed on its land in a week.
Klaus Iohannis, president of Romania, said this pointed to an unacceptable breach of Romania’s air space.
He stressed the country is ‘on alert’ and in contact with Nato allies.
Iohannis had continuously warned about the proximity of the attacks, describing them as a ‘serious risk to the security of the Black Sea’.
But Russia continued to target civilian and port facilities along the Danube River in the Odesa region, just a few hundred meters from the Nato member.
The strikes have increased security risks for the military alliance whose members have a mutual defence commitment.
‘…The charge d’affaires of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Bucharest was urgently summoned on Saturday to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the level of state secretary,’ the foreign ministry said in a statement sent to Agerpres.
‘State Secretary for Strategic Affairs Iulian Fota conveyed the protest of the Romanian side over the violation of Romania’s air space following the identification on (our) territory, near the border with Ukraine, of some drone fragments similar to those used by Russian forces in the aggression against Ukraine.’
Meanwhile, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russian strikes near the border were ‘destabilising’ even if there was no indication Russia intended to hit the member state.
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