{"id":473083,"date":"2026-05-29T13:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/473083\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T13:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:05:12","slug":"nato-pledges-to-defend-every-inch-of-its-territory-as-russian-drone-hits-building-in-romania-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/473083\/","title":{"rendered":"Nato pledges to defend \u2018every inch\u2019 of its territory as Russian drone hits building in Romania \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nato<\/a> accused Moscow on Friday \u200cof reckless behaviour and pledged to \u201cdefend every inch of Allied territory\u201d after Romania<\/a> said a Russian<\/a> drone had crashed into an apartment block in the alliance member state during an attack on neighbouring Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Romania\u2019s defence ministry said a woman and a child \u200bsuffered minor injuries in Galati near the border with Ukraine overnight after radar tracked a Russian drone entering Romanian airspace and reaching the southeastern city.<\/p>\n

Photographs from the scene showed charred and damaged brickwork on the roof of the 10-storey apartment block which Romanian authorities said was hit by a drone that exploded on impact, causing a fire in a top-floor flat.<\/p>\n

Russia did not immediately comment on the incident.<\/p>\n

It was the first time a densely populated area in a Nato country had been hit \u200bcausing injuries during Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine, and the incident is likely to increase tensions on the alliance\u2019s eastern flank as member states worry about the war spilling over their borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia\u2019s reckless behaviour is a danger to us all,\u201d Nato secretary general Mark Rutte \u2060said on X after speaking by phone to Romanian president Nicusor Dan, whose country is in Nato and the EU. <\/p>\n

\u201cI affirmed that Nato stands \u200cready \u200cto \u200bdefend every inch of Allied territory,\u201d he said, without making any mention of triggering Nato\u2019s mutual defence clause. \u201cWe will continue to enhance our readiness to deter and defend against any threat, including from drones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan said on X that Russia\u2019s behaviour \u201cdemonstrates total disregard for international law and for the safety of the citizens of \u2060a Nato member state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreign minister Oana Toiu said the Russian ambassador had been summoned, \u200band Romania\u2019s top defence council met following the incident.<\/p>\n

Romania, which shares a \u200b650km land border with Ukraine, said Russian drones had breached its airspace 28 times since Moscow began attacking Ukrainian ports across the Danube River following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

There have been multiple airspace incursions into Nato airspace since \u2060Moscow invaded Ukraine, most notably when more than 20 \u200bRussian drones entered Poland\u2019s airspace on the night of September 9-10th.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks Ukrainian drones have strayed into Baltic countries\u2019 airspace, sowing confusion and raising tensions with Russia.<\/p>\n

Romania has asked Nato allies to deploy additional anti-drone capabilities to Romania, with official sources saying Bucharest needs low-altitude radars and interceptor drones. A Nato spokesperson said on Friday \u201cpotential additional defensive measures are considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local authorities in southern Ukraine said Izmail port in the Odesa region, across the border from Galati, had come under attack from drones early on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Romanian defence ministry said two F-16 fighter jets had been scrambled and a military helicopter was sent to monitor the attack, with the pilots authorised to shoot down any drones without endangering inhabited areas. The residents of border counties Braila, Galati and Tulcea were warned to take cover.<\/p>\n

The drone was in Romania\u2019s airspace for four minutes and flew at a low altitude for 10km, (6.2 miles), making it difficult \u200cfor radar to detect, Romanian brigadier general Gheorghe Maxim \u2060said.<\/p>\n

He told a press conference that although the US anti-drone system Merops is operational in Romania it is not yet fully integrated with national air defences and it would have been too risky to use in a city.<\/p>\n

In addition to the woman and her child who were taken to hospital with minor injuries, two people were treated \u200con the scene for panic attacks and 70 were evacuated from the apartment block, local authorities said.<\/p>\n

Deputy interior minister Raed Arafat, who is in charge of the emergency response agency, told private broadcaster Digi24 that the drone affected two building stairwells, an \u200belevator shaft and damaged five cars.<\/p>\n

A drone also damaged an electricity pole and a household annex in Galati in April.<\/p>\n

In a separate incident, a \u200bdrone without an explosive charge was found in northwestern Romania, state TVR broadcaster said late on Thursday, citing local authorities. Its origin was being investigated. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nato accused Moscow on Friday \u200cof reckless behaviour and pledged to \u201cdefend every inch of Allied territory\u201d after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,3026,18121,3589,40,38,41,39,1713],"class_list":["post-473083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organisation-nato","tag-romania","tag-russia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}