Romania summoned the Russian ambassador on Sunday, September 14 to denounce the “unacceptable” flight of a Russian drone the day before in his airspace, a few days after a spectacular intrusion of similar airplanes in the Polish sky.
Bucharest expressed the head of Russian diplomatic representation, Vladimir Lipaïev, of “his lively protest” against “this unacceptable and irresponsible act,” wrote Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement. “He urged the Russian party to take all the necessary measures” to prevent such “violation of Romania’s sovereignty” to happen again.
During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, 19 Russian free planes made a raid in the Polish sky, the first of its kind since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in the Ukrainian territory in February 2022.
Since then, Poland has been on alert, like the states of the Atlantic Alliance that maintain a military presence in their soil. “Such recurring incidents contribute to escalation and amplification of regional security threats,” the ministry told the ambassador.
The same press release emphasizes that Romania, a member of NATO and the European Union, “remains in permanent contact with its allies.” The Romanian Defense Ministry had previously described the incident as “new challenge for regional security and stability in the Black Sea region.”
Romania had pointed out on Saturday night that a “Geran” drone had entered his airspace during a Russian attack against infrastructure in neighboring Ukraine.
German assistance
On Saturday night, two F-16 Romanian combat aircraft “detected a drone in the national airspace” that flew for about 50 minutes in the east of Romania, from the town of Chilia neighborhood, before leaving near the city of Pardina to Ukraine, according to the Ministry of Defense.
“The pilots received authorization to tear down the objective but, when they had direct contact, they evaluated the collateral risks and decided not to open fire.”
However, they had the possibility that a law approved in February by the upper chamber of the Romanian Parliament, which allows to demolish the drones that violate the Romanian borders. The F16 received the help of “two Typhoon aircraft of Eurofighter Germans” that later carried out a surveillance mission, the ministry added.
According to the press release, the drone did not fly over populated areas and did not constitute an imminent threat to population safety. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, several fragments of drones have crashed on Romanian soil.
“Much less expensive solutions”
The Romanian Foreign Minister, Tou Oana, announced that “it would raise the issue of Russia’s actions in the United Nations General Assembly, urging the strict compliance with international sanctions.”
This intrusion of a drone in Romania is “unacceptable”, reacted to the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, who has also quickly been to punish an “reckless climb” that “threatens regional security” on Sunday.
“We are ready to teach all our partners how to defend themselves. Everyone can see that the Russians study the means to bring war in Poland and the Baltic states. The Russian army also proves Romania,” said Ukrainian President Volodyr Zelensky.
“Of course, NATO has patriotic missiles, other systems and powerful combat planes, but, in Ukraine, we have much less expensive, more massive and more systematic solutions against Russian drones,” he said.
His American counterpart Donald Trump said on Saturday that he was ready to take new sanctions against Russia, but on the condition that NATO countries stop buying Russian oil.
The EU has banned most of the imports of Russia since 2022, but the Petroleum Pipe in Droujba (“friendship” in Russian) has been temporarily exempt to give time to the states of Central Europe to find new solutions.
Hungary and Slovakia, both EU members, continue to receive Russian oil through this pipe, which has been attacked several times by Ukrainian strikes in recent weeks.
Source: BFM TV
