BUCHAREST, June 5 – A naval drone similar to those deployed in the ongoing Ukraine conflict exploded Friday at Romania’s Constanta port on the Black Sea, causing no injuries but prompting immediate safety measures, according to the country’s defense ministry.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of the port facility and issued warnings for residents along Romania’s Black Sea coastline to seek shelter. Two helicopters conducted aerial surveillance of the surrounding area to search for any additional drones, deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat reported.
“We now know there is the risk of self-detonation, we have … evacuated in case there are more drones,” Arafat stated.
“We are not panicking, the measures are purely preventative.”
This detonation occurred one week following an incident where a Russian drone struck an apartment complex in Galati, a southeastern Romanian city located near Ukraine’s border, wounding two individuals. That event marked the first instance during the Russia-Ukraine conflict where a drone impacted a heavily populated area within a NATO member nation.
As both a NATO and European Union member nation, Romania maintains a 650-kilometer (400-mile) boundary with Ukraine. The defense ministry reports that 28 violations of Romanian airspace by Russian drones have occurred since Moscow initiated attacks on Ukrainian Danube River ports.
Debris from Ukrainian drones has also fallen within Romanian borders.
