Romania detects drone crossing its airspace amid Russian strikes in neighboring Ukraine

The Defense Ministry said early Wednesday, November 19, that its Air Force detected a drone entering national airspace overnight, prompting the scramble of German and Romanian fighter jets amid ongoing Russian attacks near Romania’s border with Ukraine.

Two German Eurofighter Typhoon jets stationed at the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base took off at 00:25 on November 19 to monitor the situation along the Ukrainian border following Russian strikes close to Romania’s Danube frontier, the ministry said.

Five minutes earlier, authorities had issued a Ro-Alert warning for northern Tulcea County after radar systems detected a drone crossing roughly eight kilometers into Romanian airspace from the direction of Vylkove toward Periprava and Chilia Veche, before disappearing from radar.

“The drone reappeared intermittently on radar for about 12 minutes, moving from Colibași (Republic of Moldova) toward Foltești and later in the area of Oancea (Romania), prompting a Ro-Alert message in northern Galați County at 00:59. Two additional aircraft, Romanian Air Force F-16s, were scrambled from the 71st Air Base at Câmpia Turzii,” reads the press release. 

The Eurofighter jets returned to Mihail Kogălniceanu at 01:50, while the Romanian F-16s landed back at Câmpia Turzii around 02:30. 

The Defense Ministry said no drone debris or evidence of an impact had been reported, and specialist teams were prepared to begin ground searches.

Defense Ministry spokesperson Corneliu Pavel told Digi24 that the Air Force had received authorization to shoot down the drone. 

“There was authorization to engage the target, but once again the decision was not to do so because the signal appeared intermittently and only on radar,” he said. 

On Monday morning, Romanian authorities carried out preventive evacuations in the villages of Plauru and Ceatalchioi in Tulcea county after a drone attack on the Ukrainian port of Izmail ignited a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessel located close to the Romanian border.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

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