Romania Issues Overnight Air Raid Alerts as Russian Drones Attack Near the Border

People living in Romania’s Tulcea and Galați counties were issued RO-ALERT air raid notifications overnight on Tuesday as Russia carried out drone strikes against Ukraine.

As reported by Agerpres on December 23, citing Romania’s Ministry of National Defense, radar systems detected two aerial objects at 01:10 moving within Ukrainian airspace toward the towns of Reni and Kiliia.

At 01:26, authorities sent RO-ALERT warnings to residents in northern Tulcea County and southeastern Galați County.

“The radars detected another group of drones moving towards the port of Reni and explosions were reported shortly afterwards on Ukrainian territory,” a source told Agerpres.

Romanian officials stressed that there were no unauthorized incursions into the country’s airspace. The air raid warning was canceled at 02:15 a.m.

Last month, Romanian authorities have pointed to a recent incident involving a Russian drone that entered the country’s airspace during another overnight attack on Ukraine.

Defense Minister Ionuț Moșteanu said that on November 25 a Russian drone without a warhead was located in Vaslui County after crossing into Romania. Speaking during a visit to the 57th “Mihail Kogălniceanu” Air Base, he confirmed that the unmanned aircraft came down near the locality of Puiești, according to Agerpres.

“Another Russian drone entered our airspace, a new provocation by Russia against Romania, a drone that the Romanian army and German Eurofighter jets attempted to shoot down… A drone without any payload was found in Vaslui County,” Moșteanu said. He added that he cut short his visit to the air base and returned to Bucharest to coordinate the response with other authorities.

Earlier, in the early morning of November 22, Russian drones struck near the Orlivka border checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Romanian border, forcing a temporary suspension of operations at the strategically important Danube ferry crossing.

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