An uncrewed aerial system entered Romanian airspace and crashed in an uninhabited area of Tulcea county early Thursday morning, according to a statement from the country’s Defence Ministry.
The incident, which occurred northeast of the village of Grindu near the border with Ukraine, resulted in a small fire but caused no injuries or material damage.
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Military radar first detected a group of aerial targets north of Tulcea at 02:23 local time, the Ministry said.
Subsequent monitoring and reconnaissance, supported by two Spanish F-18 fighter jets and a Romanian IAR-330 SOCAT helicopter, tracked the movement as one drone breached Romanian airspace around 03:21, approximately 13km east of the city of Galați.
Within three minutes of the breach, the helicopter crew reported that the drone had crashed about four kilometres northeast of Grindu.
The Ministry noted that the fire extinguished itself at the site, which is situated in an unpopulated area.
Authorities confirmed there were no casualties or damage to infrastructure as a result of the incident.
Following the crash, the National Military Command Centre alerted Romania’s emergency services, activating public warning procedures for the affected region. A public alert message was circulated immediately after detection of the potential threat, it stated.
This latest event comes days after a similar occurrence on 16 August, when Romania’s Defence Ministry reported that a Spanish F-18 fighter deployed for Nato air policing shot down a drone, which also fell in an unpopulated area near the Ukrainian and Moldovan borders.
Last month, Romania downed a drone for the first time since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, after it entered Romanian airspace roughly 100km from Bucharest.
The continued appearance of drones in border regions has raised security concerns among Nato members neighbouring Ukraine.
In May this year, Latvian authorities confirmed two Russian drones crashed on their territory in comparable circumstances.
