A Spanish fighter shoots down a drone over Romania

A drone has been shot down in Romanian airspace, near the borders with Ukraine and Moldova, by a Spanish fighter on a NATO mission in the country. The Romanian defence ministry announced the interception.

The unmanned craft came from Moldova and was intercepted by an F-18. The ministry also reported that debris may have fallen in an uninhabited area of the Galati region, close to the Ukrainian border.

The drone that was shot down appears to be Russian, said United States Army Colonel Martin O'Donnell, spokesperson for NATO's military headquarters, quoted by Reuters. He added that further details of Sunday's incident are still being investigated.

An eastern flank under pressure

Romania, with nineteen million inhabitants, is one of the NATO members most exposed to the effects of the war in Ukraine. Since 2023 the authorities in Bucharest have repeatedly reported finding drone fragments on national territory, following Russian attacks on the Ukrainian Danube ports, which lie right up against the Romanian border.

Last month Romania shot down a drone for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, after the craft entered national airspace some hundred kilometres from Bucharest. The eastern part of the country, facing the Black Sea, is considered particularly exposed because of its proximity to the Ukrainian areas frequently targeted by Russian raids.

Similar incidents have occurred in other countries on the Alliance's eastern flank, including Poland and the Baltic states. Last Friday Italian fighters on NATO's air policing mission shot down a drone that had entered Latvian airspace.