The incidents have left the 32-member military alliance on edge. Friday’s incursion drew strong condemnation across Europe, with leaders calling Russia’s actions reckless and irresponsible.<\/p>\n
Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a helicopter, and alerted residents of the affected areas, but the aircraft didn\u2019t engage the drone in the city, which is located near the borders of Ukraine and Moldova.<\/p>\n
Romania asked NATO to speed up the transfer of anti-drone capabilities to its military, the Foreign Ministry said, calling the incursion a serious violation of international law.<\/p>\n
Asked about the drone during a state visit to Astana, Kazakhstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said its origin is yet to be determined, telling reporters that \u201cno one can say what origin a particular aircraft has until it has been examined.\u201d He urged Romania to turn the drone over to Russia for it to conduct \u201can objective investigation”. <\/p>\n
But Romanian President Nicusor Dan identified the drone as Russian.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a Russian drone, Geran-2, leaving Russia. We know the trajectory, we know where it went through Ukraine, we know where it entered Romania, part of a swarm of 43 Russian drones, of which only one reached Romanian territory,\u201d a statement from Dan said.<\/p>\n
He said later that investigators determined it was probably carrying at least 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of explosives.<\/p>\n
General Gheorghe Maxim, interim commander of the Romanian armed forces’ joint staff, told a news conference that the drone in Galati wasn’t \u201can attack from Russia against Romania,\u201d but he added that \u201cRomanians should understand that Russia is a threat to the security of the countries in the area”. <\/p>\n
In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> said he had spoken to Dan, praising the country’s \u201cprincipled, prompt, and strong\u201d response. In a social media post, he said the countries\u2019 militaries were in contact and that “we will remain in constant communication with Romania and continue working together to protect lives from all potential Russian threats”. <\/p>\n Russian troops prepare to launch an interceptor drone to Ukraine (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n Earlier drones in Romania<\/p>\n Romania has confirmed drone fragments landed on its territory on multiple occasions since the war began, including in Galati last month, but no one was hurt in any of those incidents, with debris falling in remote areas.<\/p>\n Dan convened Romania\u2019s top defence body Friday to discuss what he called \u201cthe worst incident to hit the national territory\u201d since the war began.<\/p>\n After the Supreme Council of National Defense met in Bucharest, Dan said the Russian consul in the Black Sea port of Constanta has been declared persona non grata and that the consulate will be closed. Foreign Minister Oana Toiu summoned Russian Ambassador Vladimir Lipaev and told him the consul had 72 hours to leave Romania.<\/p>\n Territorial violations have become so common in Romania in recent years that lawmakers adopted legislation last year allowing the army to shoot down drones entering its airspace as a last resort. But the country has remained cautious in downing errant drones, which can pose risks to populated areas.<\/p>\n Russia has been using long-range missiles<\/a> and drones to damage Ukraine\u2019s power grid and hammer cities<\/a>, and Ukraine has braced for further heavy bombardments. Kyiv also has sent long-range drones deep into Russia to attack oil refineries<\/a>, military bases and and other infrastructure.<\/p>\n Friday’s incident adds to recent drone-related incursions in Europe. Ukrainian drones have hit the chimney of a power plant in Estonia and empty fuel tanks in Latvia, and also were shot down by Romanian fighter jets stationed in Lithuania. Ukrainian officials apologised and said the drones were aimed at military targets in Russia, but veered off course by Russian electronic interference.<\/p>\n Poland, Croatia, Romania and non-NATO member Moldova all have reported airspace violations and found drone fragments on their territory since the war began. The airspace violations have raised questions about the state of air defences on NATO\u2019s eastern flank.<\/p>\n A senior US military official recently told reporters the number of \u201chybrid activities\u201d \u2014 drone incursions, hacking attacks and other acts short of military force in Europe that can be attributed to Russia \u2014 have increased in recent years and are part of a campaign to achieve strategic objectives without actually going to war.<\/p>\n The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the ongoing situation, said it is believed that there’s an opportunity for the US and other NATO countries to be more aggressive in countering these actions, particularly since there is a belief that Russia won’t see the responses as escalatory.<\/p>\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint press conference with Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda and Polish President Karol Nawrocki, at the Presidential palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, January 25, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n Allies’ condemnation<\/p>\n NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he had spoken to Dan and expressed \u201cabsolute solidarity\u201d with its ally.<\/p>\n “NATO stands ready to defend every inch of Allied territory. We will continue to enhance our readiness to deter and defend against any threat, including from drones,\u201d he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n A senior NATO military official said the alliance detected and tracked the Russian drone, but it entered Romanian airspace only minutes before striking the apartment building in Gala\u021bi. It was traveling at nearly 200 kilometers per hour (nearly 124 mph) over a populated area less than 15km from the border, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military information.<\/p>\n NATO is assessing what more can be done to optimise Romania’s and NATO\u2019s network of sensors and shooters to safely neutralise such threats, the official added.<\/p>\n NATO allies spoke informally about the incursion, but no official meeting was scheduled Friday. Romania can request formal NATO consultations if it believes its territory or security is under threat.<\/p>\n European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia “has crossed yet another line,\u201d and that the European Union will draft a 21st set of sanctions against Moscow.<\/p>\n Putin also was asked in Kazakhstan about comments that NATO is capable of destroying Russian military assets in Moscow’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad. He responded that Russia \u201chas every means to raze to the ground anyone who tries to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n He said nations posing a direct military threat to Russia \u201care legitimate targets,\u201d responding to an earlier claim by Russia\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Service that Ukraine sent troops to Latvia to launch drones at Russia. Officials in Latvia and other Baltic nations rejected Moscow\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said the risk of such \u201cserious incidents\u201d was raised by \u201cPutin\u2019s increasing nervousness, driven by military setbacks”. <\/p>\n Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Putin\u2019s National Security Council, told European leaders to \u201cjust shut up\u201d about the drone.<\/p>\n Medvedev, known for his provocative and inflammatory statements, said in an expletive-filed post on his messaging channel MAX that the leaders were \u201cscoundrels\u201d and \u201cimbeciles\u201d and that their countries were part of the \u201cwarring nations\u201d in the conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cEuropean drones, their spare parts, and other weapons, not to mention intelligence data, are used daily in attacks on our country,\u201d he wrote. \u201cTheir operations result in damage to residential buildings, killing civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Russian drone that was part of an attack on Ukraine went astray and struck an apartment building…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1403,42,43,1979,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-451788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-defence","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-russia-invades-ukraine","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Russian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/russian-drone-AGGPU6S54BEENF6U4YLZZ32C3M.jpg\")
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