A drone crashed onto the roof of a 10-storey block of flats in the southeastern city of Galati during a Russian overnight attack on neighbouring Ukraine on Friday, causing an explosion and a fire that injured two people, Romanian authorities said.
– Romania, a member of both NATO and the European Union, shares a 650-km (400-mile) land border with Ukraine and has seen Russian drones breach its airspace 28 times since Moscow began attacking Kyiv’s ports across the Danube river, Romania’s defence ministry said on Friday.
– Friday’s incident was the first time a drone had hit a densely populated area in Romania and caused injuries, and was likely to increase tensions on NATO’s eastern flank at a time when Ukraine’s allies are worried about the war spilling over its borders.
– The ministry added it had recovered drone fragments that fell in Romania 47 times.
– Romania’s emergency response agency said on Friday a fire broke out in a 10th floor apartment after the drone struck the building’s roof and exploded. Two people were receiving medical treatment on site, it said, adding 70 people had evacuated.
– It said the drone’s entire explosive payload detonated. The fire has since been extinguished.
– State news agency Agerpres cited Galati’s emergency response agency saying a woman and her child had been taken to hospital with minor injuries while two others had been treated on site for panic attacks.
– Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat, who is in charge of the emergency response agency, told private broadcaster Digi24 the drone affected two building stairwells and damaged five cars.
– In a separate incident, a drone without an explosive charge was found around Basesti in Maramures county in northwestern Romania and the area was secured, state TVR broadcaster said late on Thursday, citing local authorities.
– The authorities were investigating the origin of the drone, which the report said had a wingspan of about 3 metres (9.84 feet), and how it happened to be in the area, TVR added.
– Local authorities in southern Ukraine, meanwhile, said the Izmail port in the Odesa region came under attack from several drones in the early hours of Friday morning.
– Izmail, close to the Romanian border, is home to the largest Ukrainian port on the Danube River and is a frequently targeted strategic location.
– Galati was hit previously in April when a drone damaged an electricity pole and a household annex and officials temporarily evacuated people nearby. They retrieved the drone to detonate its unexploded payload at a remote location.
– On Friday, the defence ministry said it scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a military helicopter to monitor the attack, adding the pilots were authorised to shoot down any drones. The residents of border counties Braila, Galati and Tulcea were warned to take cover.
– Romanian law allows it to shoot down drones during peacetime if lives or property are at risk, but it has not yet done so.
– Ukrainian drones have strayed into Baltic countries’ airspace in recent weeks, sowing confusion and raising tensions with Russia.