Romania feels the impact of the war in Ukraine more than ever. For the third consecutive day, a Romanian Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a drone that had illegally penetrated its airspace this Sunday, a new incident that has led Bucharest to announce a diplomatic protest against Russia by summoning its ambassador this Monday.
On Friday, a Romanian pilot destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle in Buzau province, about 130 kilometers from Bucharest; and on Saturday, the same pilot shot down a third aircraft in Sfanftu Gheroghe, in the Danube Delta, near the Ukrainian border. This Sunday, a military aircraft intercepted the aerial object over the Black Sea, specifically between the towns of Sulina and Chilia.
“A new drone was shot down this morning, at 10:13 local time (one hour less in peninsular Spain), by a Romanian Air Force F-16 aircraft, over the territorial waters of Romania, in the Sulina-Chilia area,” announced the head of state in a message published on his Facebook account. The head of state stressed that, according to investigations carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office, the drone shot down on Friday morning is of the Shahed type, used by the Russian Federation in the war of aggression against Ukraine,” although he declined to confirm the origin of the other two: “investigations into yesterday’s and today’s (Saturday and Sunday) objects are ongoing.”
As a novelty, Dan stated that “Romania’s diplomatic protest against the Russian Federation will be based on this investigation,” while describing the continuous violations of Romanian airspace as “inadmissible and intolerable,” reminding that it is also NATO and European Union airspace. “These actions are unacceptable and we are addressing them with all seriousness together with our allies,” he remarked.
For her part, Foreign Minister Oana Toiu announced on the social network X that she has summoned the Russian ambassador in Bucharest, Vladimir Lipaev, for this Monday due to the “repeated violations” of Romanian airspace.
The last formal protest against Moscow occurred after a Russian drone destroyed an apartment in the city of Galați, on the banks of the Danube Delta, an incident after which the Russian consul in Constanta was declared persona non grata and the consulate ended up being closed.
The incidents in Romania reflect the siege that Ukraine has been suffering in recent days. The Ukrainian Air Force revealed this Sunday that Russia launched a total of eight missiles and 136 drones last night. Of these, two projectiles and 27 unmanned aerial vehicles managed to hit their targets.
The Ministry of Defense highlighted that four of the five drones shot down so far in European Union and NATO territory have been neutralized by Romanian pilots. According to the department, the aircraft was initially detected outside national airspace, entered Romania’s territorial waters at 10:08 AM and was destroyed five minutes later, about 12 kilometers northeast of Sulina, with no casualties or material damage reported.
Interim Defense Minister Radu Miruta warned that these incursions show that the war continues to project its effects beyond Ukraine’s borders. “Each of these incidents confirms that Russian aggression against Ukraine continues to generate risks beyond Ukraine’s borders,” he said, adding that Romania “will continue to firmly defend its sovereignty and airspace, although he exclaimed: but these challenges must cease!”
A hundred attacks
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, the Romanian Ministry of Defense has counted a hundred Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory near its border, 40 of which have occurred this year alone.
During the war, 33 drone incursions into Romanian airspace have been recorded, 18 of them in 2026, with three aircraft shot down this weekend. In response, authorities have activated the Enhanced Air Police Service on 34 occasions and have located drone debris up to 50 times, 16 of them this year.
