Russian drone crashes in Romania

14 December, 2023 Shahed-136 loitering munition. Illustrative photo On the night of December 13-14, a Russian drone attempting to attack Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube River crashed in the Romanian border region of Tulcea.

The Ministry of National Defense of Romania reported this. The Ministry of National Defense monitored the situation from the border area and intensified air patrol procedures while notifying the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations of the danger near Tulcea and Galati. The General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations issued an RO-Alert at 10:45 p.m., and the alert was lifted around 02:00 a.m.

F-16s of the Romanian Air Force from the RoAF 86th Air Base and Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft of the German Air Force from the RoAF57th Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base were monitoring the national airspace.

Illustrative photo of the Romanian F-16. Photo from open sources

The Romanian Armed Forces' surveillance radar indicated a potential unauthorized violation of national airspace by detecting a low-altitude signal on one of the routes leading to the commune Grindu in Tulcea County. Based on this information, mixed teams from the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were dispatched to the area and reported in the morning that a 1.5-meter-deep crater had formed as a result of the drone crash.

The drone was reportedly discovered in a deserted area about 4 km from the town of Grind. Measures were taken to secure the area, and the competent authorities were notified to collect evidence and conduct an investigation in accordance with applicable procedures. The Ministry of National Defense of Romania strongly condemns the attacks carried out by Russia on certain facilities of civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian ports on the Danube.

The explosion of a suspected Russian Shahed UAV in Romania.

September 4, 2023. Photo credits: Oleh Nikolenko/Facebook

These attacks are unjustified and seriously violate international humanitarian law. Russian kamikaze drones have repeatedly violated Romanian airspace and crashed in the country.

On September 5, Militarnyi reported that a Russian drone detonated in a Romanian border field.

A similar situation occurred earlier, in August 2023.

At that time, the Mayor of Cetalkoi commune in the border town of Tulcea reported that Russian drones were flying over the homes of local residents.