Russian Drone Debris Found in Romania, NATO Says No Sign of Intentional Attack

Romania said it found Russian drone fragments on its territory on Thursday (25 July) and NATO said it saw no sign of an intentional attack on the alliance’s territory after Moscow troops fired 38 long-range drones into Ukraine overnight.

Ukraine’s Air Force destroyed 25 Russian drones, its chief said on Telegram. Three drones “were lost after crossing the state border with Romania”, he added.

Romania’s defence ministry said it had found fragments of a Russian Geran 1/2 drone near the village of Plauru across the Danube River from Ukraine’s southern port town of Izmail that came under attack the second night in a row.

Commenting on the reports of debris, a NATO spokesperson said there was no indication of an intentional attack on the alliance’s territory.

“While NATO has no information indicating any intentional attack by Russia against Allied territory, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous”, a spokesperson said in a statement.

Two Finnish F-18 fighter jets, part of NATO air policing missions in Romania, were scrambled to monitor the attack, the ministry added.

Searches for other fragments were continuing and all locations where drones might have fallen “were outside residential areas and no infrastructure elements were damaged”, it said.

Romania shares a 650-km border with Ukraine and has had Russian drone fragments stray into its territory repeatedly over the past year.

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Kyiv says on Christmas morning, a Russian missile targeting Ukraine’s energy grid flew through Moldovan and Romanian airspace; Bucharest says none was detected while Chișinău says it is investigating.

Russia attacked infrastructure in the southern Odesa region and central Ukraine, the air force chief said.

Odesa region governor Oleh Kiper said two people were wounded when drone debris hit a private house in Izmail district.

According to the Zhytomyr region governor, the air defence systems hit most of the 10 aerial targets overnight, but drone debris damaged 10 private houses and one infrastructure facility.

The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said that drones attacked the capital from different directions, but all were destroyed on the approaches. Popko said there were no reports of damage or casualties in Kyiv.

Separately, authorities in the southern region of Kherson said that a man had been killed in the street after a drone dropped explosives on him.

Ukrainian troops regained control of much of the Kherson region in late 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of that year, but Russian forces still shell Ukrainian-held areas from positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River and launch drones.