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Romania becomes second Nato country to report Russian drone in its airspace

Image source, EPA Image caption, F-16 aircraft detected a Russian drone in Romanian airspace, while monitoring the country's border with Ukraine

Author, Ian Casey Role, Author, Alex Boyd Role,

14 September 2025 Updated 8 hours ago

Romania says a Russian drone has breached its airspace - the second Nato country to report such an incursion.

Romanian fighter jets were in the air monitoring a Russian attack in Ukraine on Saturday and were able to track the drone near Ukraine's southern border, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the incursion could not be a mistake - it was "an obvious expansion of the war by Russia". Moscow has not commented on the Romanian claims.

On Wednesday, Poland said it had shot down at least three Russian drones which had entered its airspace.

In its statement, Romania's defence ministry said it detected the Russian drone when two F-16 jets were monitoring the country's border with Ukraine, after "Russian air attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure on the Danube".

Romania has also summoned the Russian ambassador to Bucharest's foreign ministry.

The drone was identified as a Geran, the Russian name for an Iranian-designed Shahed 136, which is used by Russia both for attacks on Ukraine and surveillance. It was detected 20km (12.4 miles) south-west of the village of Chilia Veche, before disappearing from the radar.

But it did not fly over populated areas or pose imminent danger, the ministry said.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, called the incident "yet another unacceptable breach of an EU member state's sovereignty".

Under a new Romanian law passed this summer, the pilots were authorised to shoot the Russian drone down, but decided not to.

The defence ministry said it "assessed the collateral risks and decided not to open fire". The statement came after the air force was criticised in Romanian media for not shooting the drone down.

Separately over the weekend, Russia's railway network was damaged in attacks on two western regions that left at least three people dead. According to AFP, a source in Ukraine's military intelligence claimed responsibility.

Ukraine's military said it had carried out a drone strike on one of Russia's largest oil refineries, located south east of St Petersburg and 800km (497 miles) from the Ukrainian border, causing a large fire.

The Russian governor of the region said air defences had destroyed three Ukrainian drones and the fire was caused by falling debris.

Poland also responded to concerns over Russian drones on Saturday.

"Preventative operations of aviation - Polish and allied - have begun in our airspace," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a post on X.

"Ground-based air defence systems have reached the highest state of readiness."

Earlier this week Russia's defence ministry said there had been "no plans" to target facilities on Polish soil.

Belarus, a close Russian ally, said the drones which entered Polish airspace on Wednesday were an accident, after their navigation systems were jammed.

On Sunday, the Czech Republic announced it had sent a special operations helicopter unit to Poland.

The unit consists of three Mi-171S helicopters, each one capable of transporting up to 24 personnel and featuring full combat equipment.

The move is in response to Russian's incursion into Nato's eastern flank, the Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said.

In response to the latest drone incursion, President Zelensky said the Russian military "knows exactly where their drones are headed and how long they can operate in the air".

He has consistently asked Western countries to tighten sanctions on Moscow.

US President Donald Trump also weighed in on airspace breach earlier this week, saying he was "ready" to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, but only if Nato countries met certain conditions, such as stopping buying Russian oil.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been making slow progress in the battlefield.

ImperiumRome on September 14th, 2025 at 17:50 UTC »

What would be their explanation now ? First time it was malfunction due to jamming or some other anti-drone measures (though kinda hard to believe that jammed drones decided to fly toward NATO airspace, and not the other way around, but whatever).

And it's funny that the two incidents are just a few days away from each other ! You would think that if the Russians don't want to escalate or repeat the same mistake twice, they would have ordered their troops to operate the drones further away from border with NATO, but alas, no.

Cannot-Forget on September 14th, 2025 at 15:53 UTC »

Once could be a mistake, but twice?

ApostleofV8 on September 14th, 2025 at 12:27 UTC »

Appeasement leads to escalation.