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.
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.