Romania detects the presence of a Russian drone in its airspace | International

Romania has detected this Saturday the presence in its airspace of a drone during a Russian attack on facilities on Ukrainian soil near the border with Romania, so the Ministry of Defense has mobilized two fighters. The Polish Air Force has also received signals, at first, from a possible threat of Russian aerial vehicles in border regions with Ukraine, but the maximum alert launched was deactivated after two hours, without finally detected any invasion of its Polish airspace.

The Romanian Defense Minister, ionuț mosteanu, communicated on social networks that two F-16 planes took off this Saturday-at 17:05, Spanish time-from the 86 FetEșTI base, southwest of Romania, after a drone violated the airspace of this country. The minister said it was a Russian apparatus. “The Romanian Air Forces detected today, September 13, a Russian drone that entered the national airspace,” said the head of the defense portfolio, days after about twenty drones entered Poland and generated alert among NATO allies.

The Romanian fighters followed the object for about 20 kilometers, until it disappeared from the radar in the area of ​​Chilia neighborhood, a Romanian commune located at the mouth of the Danube and border with Ukraine. In that place are the Ukrainian ports from where cereals are exported through the Black Sea.

“The situation was constantly monitored and the population was not in danger. The mission is ongoing and we will provide more details,” Mosteanu continued, who stressed that Bucharest will defend their airspace and remain vigilant at Russian aggression.

The Romanian authorities also assured that the drone did not fly over inhabited areas and did not mean any danger to the safety of citizens.

A few minutes after Romania took two airplanes to take off the sky, the General Department for Emergency Situations sent an alert message to the inhabitants of the Tulcea County in which citizens were informed about the possible fall of objects from the sky and they were advised to take protection measures. At the same time, it was remembered that Romania is not the target of the attacks of the Russian Federation and asked not to panic.

After knowing the incident, President Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, said in an X message that the drone detected by the airplanes sent by Romania penetrated 10 kilometers in Romanian territory and that it flown for 50 minutes in the NATO airspace. The Ukrainian president said that the incident is not due to any error, but that it is an intentional action of Moscow that seeks “an obvious expansion” of the war.

Last February, Romania adopted a new law that allows the Army to demolish the drones that enter the Romanian territory. The norm was adopted after they have fallen fragments of the unmanned aerial devices several times, since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. So far, there have only been some damages in homes in almost uninhabited populations, without any more serious consequence.

In Poland a similar situation was lived. Three days after Russian drones violated their airspace up to 19 times within the framework of an offensive against Ukraine, the operational command of the armed forces of the community country activated “all the necessary procedures” before a new threat due to possible attacks of unmanned aerial vehicles. A few minutes after four o’clock on Saturday, the military management body reported in a message that NATO military aviation and NATO allied countries undertook the flight with “preventive character”.

The combat aircraft joined the terrestrial systems of air defense and radar recognition to locate possible hostile objects in the Polish sky. This phase is the same that was followed on Wednesday night before about twenty Russian attack drones crossed the border that Ukraine and Poland separates.

After the message of the Polish military command, the Government Security Council, in charge of notifying the population to a possible threat, generally linked to meteorological phenomena, launched an alert for “threat of air attack.” The sirens sounded in the County of Chełm, Krasnystaw, ęczna, świdnica and Włodawa, in the eastern province of Lublin, near La Linde with Ukraine.

Precisely, the airport in this region temporarily suspended operations. Unlike the early morning of last Wednesday, during which Ukrainian monitoring websites reported the arrival of Russian drones to Poland, on this occasion, tracking channels have not located attack aircraft in the direction of the border.

Two hours after taking off the fighters, the Polish military command ended operations. “The terrestrial air defense systems and activated radar recognition have returned to their standard operational activities,” said the military management in a statement. The Lublin airfield has also resumed its activities.