Two Romanian F-16s responded to at least one unidentified target over NATO territory on Wednesday, with investigations ongoing into at least the third violation of alliance airspace in the country within a week.
Romania’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that its military radars had detected an unspecified “aerial target” along the border between Romania and Ukraine at around 8:45 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
Radars tracked the target west toward the town of Tulcea, before losing the signal at around 9 p.m. local time, just over 7 miles northeast of the settlement, according to the government.
Tulcea sits directly across the border from the Ukrainian port of Izmail, which Russia has repeatedly attacked. The Danube River marks the border between the two countries, just north of Tulcea.
A Romanian Air Force F-16 fighter jet lands at the 71st Air Base in Cluj County during the Swift Response airborne exercise on May 14, 2024. Two such airplanes responded to at least one unidentified…
A Romanian Air Force F-16 fighter jet lands at the 71st Air Base in Cluj County during the Swift Response airborne exercise on May 14, 2024. Two such airplanes responded to at least one unidentified target over NATO territory on Wednesday.
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Russian drones have crossed into NATO territory a number of times since the start of full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022, with fragments found in Romania on several occasions. Romania’s government did not say that Wednesday’s incident involved Russian technology.
Two Romanian Air Force F-16 fighter jets took off from the 86th Borcea Air Base to the southwest of Tulcea “to monitor the situation,” the ministry said. The air base sits east of the capital, Bucharest.
Another unidentified air target, “most likely different from the first one,” was then picked up by radar surveillance systems just over a mile to the northwest of Lake Razim at 9:20 p.m., the Romanian government said. Tulcea is further to the northwest of the lake.
The target traveled south to the settlement of Mihai Viteazu in Constanța County, before heading back into Tulcea County and the lakeside village of Jurilovca, the statement said.
It then “disappeared from the radar” approximately 5.5 miles from the settlement at 9:40 p.m., Bucharest said.
“Fighter aircraft did not have visual contact with aerial targets at any point on the evolution paths indicated by the radar surveillance system,” the government said. Air alerts ended at 10:16 p.m. and the F-16s returned to their base, according to Bucharest.
The government is launching investigations around the two areas where its systems lost radar signals, and is checking whether an object landed on Romanian territory.
On Saturday, Bucharest said radars had picked up a “small air target” around 28 miles east of the village of Sfântu Gheorghe on the Black Sea coast, heading for Romanian territory. The object crossed over into Romania, south of Lake Razim, around an hour-and-a-half after it was first detected, according to the government.
Two Romanian F-16s took off from the Borcea base along with two Spanish military F-18s from the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base 57 to the east. The jets did not have eyes on the object—which traveled just under 12 miles into Romanian territory—at any point, the statement said. Radars again lost the signal.
Another small object breached Romanian airspace two days earlier in Constanța County, reaching around 8 miles into NATO territory, Bucharest said.
Although these statements did not point to Russian involvement, previous Russian drone incursions into Romania, and into fellow NATO member Latvia’s territory, have raised fears around the conflict in Ukraine spilling over into neighboring countries.
The drones straying into NATO territory have not been deemed intentional attacks, but the incidents stoke the fire of tensions between the alliance and Moscow, at its worst point in decades.
This type of incursion was “unthinkable” three years ago but is “now treated as routine,” Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuanian foreign minister, said last month.
“Nothing should be landing on Ukraine, or Latvia, or anywhere on NATO territory, but this is the new reality our inaction has allowed to emerge. Lithuania will, of course, be supporting a strong allied response,” Landsbergis added.
Referring to the drones reported by Latvia and Romania, Andrii Sybiha‎, Ukraine’s new foreign minister, described the incidents on X as a “stark reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions extend beyond Ukraine.”