Romania’s Ministry of Defense confirmed on Thursday that it had found fragments of Russian drones near the town of Plauru, in Tulcea county, in the border area with Ukraine. The remains were found in the area where authorities issued alert messages for a possible fall of objects after the Russian attacks against the Ukrainian port infrastructure in Izmail, on the banks of the Danube, a natural border between the two countries. Bucharest ordered the immediate takeoff, on Wednesday night, as well as the previous night, of fighter planes to monitor the airspace for the offensive near the Romanian border.
“Russian forces resumed a series of drone attacks against civilian targets and port infrastructure in Ukraine on the night of 24-25 July, near the border with Romania. Following this situation, the Ministry of Defence has intensified its monitoring and surveillance measures in the national airspace with the forces and means of the Air Police Combat Service,” the ministry explained to reassure the population.
Two Finnish fighter jets, part of the NATO mission at the Mihail Kogălniceanu airbase in Romania, have been carrying out surveillance work overnight. “At 1.32 am, two F-18s of the Finnish Air Force took off to monitor the situation and returned around 3.25 am,” the Romanian Ministry of Defence said in a statement. Romania, a member of the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union, shares a 650-kilometre border with Ukraine, and has already suffered several such incidents in the past three summers.
The National Military Command Centre also notified the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations to warn the residents of Tulcea County about the fall of drone debris due to the attacks on the Ukrainian port of Izmail. As many as ten calls to emergency services were registered due to the noise produced by the explosions.
“So far, in the first of the three places identified as possible areas of impact, near Plauru, Tulcea County, remains of a Russian drone type Geran 1/2 have been identified,” confirmed the Ministry of Defense, which indicated that the investigation will continue on Thursday to expand the search area. The areas where the debris is expected to have fallen are outside inhabited areas, it stressed. No damage to people or property has been reported.
The Romanian government has once again condemned the attacks carried out by Russia against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. Romanian Foreign Minister Luminița Odobescu stressed on social network X that she has already informed allies about the matter: “Russia has committed new heinous attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. Remains were found on Romanian territory. We have informed and are coordinating with our allies on this matter. Romania strongly condemns these irresponsible actions.”
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Ukrainian authorities announced Thursday that they had destroyed 25 of the 38 Russian attack drones launched overnight against their territory. “Last night, the enemy used 38 Shahed-131/136 attack drones to attack Ukrainian infrastructure in several areas, including the southern Odesa region and central Ukraine,” said Mikola Oleshchiuk, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, before specifying that three other drones “were lost after crossing the state border with Romania,” without giving further details.
The Romanian territory is located just a few hundred metres from the Ukrainian port of Izmail, which was attacked by drones for the second night in a row. The governor of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said that two people had been injured by debris after a drone hit a house in the Izmail district.
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