Romanian air defences tracked a Russian Shahed drone that crossed into the country on Saturday, the latest incident underscoring how Moscow’s war continues to spill across NATO borders.
The Romanian Ministry of Defence confirmed that F-16 fighter jets were scrambled after the unmanned aircraft entered its airspace.
CORRECTION: Earlier reports from the country suggested the drone had been shot down, this article has been updated to reflect new information.
Emergency alerts were issued to local residents warning of falling debris and advising them to shelter indoors for up to 90 minutes.
In neighbouring Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that his government had raised air defences to their highest level of readiness. “Ground-based air defense systems have reached the highest state of readiness,” he said, adding that Polish and allied aircraft were conducting preventive aviation operations along the border. Earlier in the week, Polish forces shot down several Russian drones with the support of NATO partners.
The Shahed drones used by Russia are Iranian-designed loitering munitions, sometimes referred to as “kamikaze drones,” and have become a central feature of Moscow’s strikes on Ukraine. Built both in Iran and under licence in Russia, the Shahed family of drones are relatively cheap to produce, allowing Russia to employ them in high numbers to saturate Ukrainian air defences.
This weekend’s incident comes amid heightened NATO concern over the vulnerability of border regions to spillover from Russia’s aerial campaign. The alliance has repeatedly condemned drone incursions into member state airspace, describing them as reckless and destabilising.
Take out the archer, stop the arrow.
Exactly. Just how long do you allow the bully to beat you & other senseless before you realise only fighting back will work?
Given Moscow’s apparent inability to distinguish between borders the firm message needs to be any russian airborne system coming within 20km of Ukraine / nato border or 20km of NATO coastline in the Black Sea gets taken out.
Quickly becoming the norm? Whether we like it or not, the NATO border is leaking and is being tested, which will help assess the alliance’s true colours. Russia has been bolstered by the recent tri-meeting between China and North Korea, and it does not stop with drone adventures, but provocative political tweets and hackings are also in the mix. To compound the situation, social and financial instability across some principal European countries is in danger of being further exploited by our foe. Strangely, the cost of rearming NATO is in itself a social ticking time bomb, creating a perfect storm in the coming years.
And Putin pushes and pushes and pushes. Time to start pushing ISTAR drones over Russian territory or maybe using EW capabilities on anything that flies close to a NATO boarder..
It’s time to spank the naughty child instead of letting him get away with his bad behaviour.
Am I being stupid or wouldn’t it be better if drones got shot down BEFORE entering the respective NATO country’s airspace? When they get shot down they can still hit something…
Hopefully Mark Rutte can issue another sternly worded letter.
Or maybe he can ask Daddy to do it.
Do tell what you think Mark Rutte can do given the limited powers of the NATO Secretary General?..
Yes, that’s my point, it’s not up to the NATO secretary general to do anything.
It’s should be the European NATO leaders doing something.
However they are all MIA leaving us with a unelected bureaucrat writing letters.
Ultimately it’s up to the NAC as to what action is or isn’t taken, and Poland has invoked a meeting under Article 4. Rutte can only organise, facilitate, cajole, the members of the NAC into action, his role is political/ bureaucratic.
I’ve not seen reported whether Article 4 was discussed at the Wednesday NAC, probably not as I think Poland’s request came later. But I’ve not seen reported when the meeting will actually be. But in the meantime all NATO governments will be briefing their NATO representatives on their positions and possible responses.
You won’t see any fast response to anything until things drop into SACEUR’s lap.
And an unhinged, treacherous POTUS to showboat at how to say much while doing nothing.
I was against retaliation by NATO in 2022 for fear of provoking a bigger war. Now in 2025 it is a bigger war whether we like it or not. We must respond now. We need armed assets air, sea and land overtly pointing at key Russian military and manufacturing sites, even if that means incursion into Russian airspace. We need to show intent and have the balls to escalate to the same level as the Russians the moment they have another ‘targeting error’. Even western NATO kit can also be prone to ‘targeting errors’.
And make that statement plain and clear. ‘For every piece of Russian ordnance that lands in a NATO country, a piece of NATO ordnance lands in Russia’.
And the response is to tut tut and wagging a stern finger. Is there nobody outside of ukraine who actually has the spine to stand up to aggressive bully’s? Looking weak and indecisive only achieves one thing, it encourages and empowers the bully.
Can someone better educated in such matters explain why NATO countries don’t simply shoot Russian drones and missiles down that breach their airspace?
I’m pretty sure flying military vehicles over an unfriendly nation is an act of war, and I’m not sure what argument Russia could have about such vehicles being destroyed by NATO.
Plus it would do a huge favour to Ukraine, while also showing the world some backbone – with hostile countries making threats against us, this would be the ideal time to broadcast a “FAFO” response.