Drones crash in Romania, Moldova as Russia bombards Ukraine
NATO member Romania and its neighbour, Moldova, have repeatedly seen violations of their airspaces, including drone fragments falling onto their soil, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Moldovan police said a village was evacuated after drone fragments fell on a house in the Cuhurestii de Jos region of the Floresti district, which adjoins Ukraine.
"The police technical explosives unit is on its way to the scene. People have been evacuated and the area cordoned off," they said.
In total, Moldova detected six drones crossing its airspace without authorisation, the ministry of defence said in a post on Facebook.
The foreign ministry said it would summon the Russian ambassador on Wednesday over "the serious violation" of Moldova's airspace.
In Romania, authorities found a crashed drone in Vaslui in the east of the country near the border with Moldova, defence minister Ionut Mosteanu told reporters.
"Either they lost control of it or it ran out of fuel since it had been flying for some time... It is a drone that, according to initial assessments, did not carry any explosive payload," he added.
Romania's defence ministry earlier said the first drone "crossed the national airspace" from Vylkove in Ukraine to the Chilia Veche area in Tulcea county in the country's east.
"Two German Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft were scrambled from Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base to monitor the situation," it said.
Two F16 planes were subsequently sent and a second drone incursion was then detected in the eastern Galati region, the defence ministry added.
US General Chris Donahue, on a visit to Romania, said NATO members were developing their capabilities to shoot down drones.
"We're in the final stages... to make sure that this capability can be employed as quickly as possible," he told reporters at the Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base near the Black Sea.
Last week, Romania already scrambled several fighter jets over a drone incursion, while Moldova summoned the Russian ambassador over it.
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