BUCHAREST — A Romanian F-16 fighter jet brought down a Russian drone over the Black Sea on Sunday, according to the country’s defense ministry, marking the third time in as many days that Romania has intercepted an unmanned aircraft violating its airspace.
President Nicusor Dan sharply condemned the repeated intrusions, writing on X that it is “inadmissible and intolerable for the Russian Federation to continue violating Romania’s airspace, which is, at the same time, NATO airspace and European Union airspace.”
“Such actions are unacceptable, and we treat them with the utmost seriousness, alongside our allies,” he added.
Romania shares a 650-kilometer (roughly 400-mile) land border with Ukraine, and Russian drones have repeatedly crossed into its airspace throughout the more than four-year conflict in Ukraine. Russia has been escalating its attacks on Ukrainian ports along the Danube River in recent weeks.
Prior to Friday, Romania had not shot down any of the drones that entered its territory. That changed when a Romanian pilot safely downed one in an uninhabited area — a milestone that has now been followed by two more successful intercepts on Saturday and Sunday.
Sunday’s drone was brought down approximately 12 kilometers northeast of the coastal town of Sulina, above Romanian territorial waters, the defense ministry confirmed.
Romanian Defense Minister Radu Miruta posted on Facebook that “Romania will continue to firmly defend its sovereignty and airspace but these provocations must stop.”
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan also weighed in, calling the airspace violations “unacceptable,” and Romania’s foreign ministry announced it had summoned the Russian ambassador “following these repeated violations.”
The defense ministry noted that Russian drones have entered Romanian national airspace without authorization 33 times since the war began, including Sunday’s incident.
President Dan identified Friday’s drone as a Shahed-type unmanned aerial vehicle, a type commonly deployed by Russian forces. Investigations into the drones downed on Saturday and Sunday are still underway. Prosecutors have recovered fragments from the Friday drone but are still searching for debris from the other two.
NATO confirmed it was investigating the details of Sunday’s incident. U.S. Army Colonel Martin O’Donnell, a spokesperson for NATO’s military headquarters, noted that “the shootdowns come as NATO, Romania, and other nations actively acquire ground-based interceptors to enhance allied and national air defence capabilities.”
On Friday, Romania’s army chief of staff warned that Russian attacks near the Ukrainian port of Odesa had been intensifying ahead of the harvest season, adding pressure to vital energy and trade corridors in the Black Sea region.
Moscow offered no immediate public response to any of the incidents.
