Ukraine says Russian drones fell and detonated on Romanian territory overnight – but the NATO member denies it

Kiev said today that Iranian-made Russian drones fell on Romanian soil and detonated during a night attack on the Ukrainian port of Izmail, a claim NATO member Romania denied.

“According to Ukraine’s border guard, Russian ‘Shahds’ fell and exploded overnight on Romanian territory,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on social media, referring to Iranian-made drones.

He said the incident took place during a massive Russian attack near Izmail, located on the Danube River opposite Romania.

Nikolenko added: “This is yet another confirmation that Russian missile terror poses a huge threat not only to the security of Ukraine, but also to the security of neighboring countries, including NATO member states.”

The spokesperson shared an image of what appeared to be flames from an explosion near a body of water. It was not immediately possible to verify the image.

But Romania’s defense ministry said it “categorically denied” that Russian drones had fallen into its territory during the attack.

Nikolenko said the incident occurred during a massive Russian attack near Izmail, located on the Danube River opposite Romania.

“At no time did the means of attack used by the Russian Federation pose a direct military threat to Romania’s national territory or territorial waters,” the report said.

However, a state border guard spokesman told AFP that Nikolenko’s report was “reliable” and that two explosions had been observed.

“We recorded two explosions on the territory of Romania near the port of Izmail during the Russian attack last night,” said Andriy Demchenko.

Meanwhile, Daniela Tanase, whose home in the Romanian village of Plauru overlooks the Ukrainian Izmail port across the river, said she was not aware of any explosions on the Romanian bank but could not say for sure.

“We heard the drones, the booms and the air defense systems across the river,” she told Reuters by phone. “We saw a light in the distance from our window. It rained last night.”

NATO has a collective defense obligation, whereby the military alliance considers an attack on one ally as an attack on all allies.

Ukrainian MP Oksana Savchuk told Ukrainian television she believed Romania’s denial could be part of NATO’s attempt to avoid a slide into direct war with Russia.

Moscow has stormed ports in southern Ukraine, including Izmail, after withdrawing from a July deal that allows Ukrainian grain to be exported through the Black Sea.

While most of the fighting during the Russian invasion took place within Ukraine’s borders, Kiev has occasionally claimed that the conflict has spilled over into European countries, claims that its NATO allies have largely rejected.

In March 2022, a Soviet-made Tupolev drone crashed into the Croatian capital Zagreb, leaving no injuries, and in November a missile landed on a Polish village near the Ukrainian border, killing two people.

Ukraine suggested that Russia was behind both incidents, but in both cases Western allies rejected this, suggesting instead that they were of Ukrainian descent and had fallen there by accident.

Officials in Kiev said Monday’s attack damaged Ukrainian warehouses and set buildings on fire hours before Erdogan met Putin in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) during their talks in Sochi, Russia, on Monday

Turkey, also a NATO member, has sponsored the Black Sea grain export deal and Erdogan has said he expects to convince Putin to rejoin it.

Russia in July dropped the deal that allowed Ukraine to export safe food through the Black Sea during the war. The Danube has since become a crucial export corridor for Ukrainian grain, and Russia has regularly bombarded the route with airstrikes.

In the early hours of Monday, Ukraine’s border guard said two drones had struck Romanian soil near Ukraine’s Izmail port, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reported.

It said it passed the information on to its Romanian counterparts, but received no response.

The chief of staff of the Ukrainian president, Andriy Yermak, said the incident demonstrated the need to increase the supply of modern air defense and long-range weapons to deprive Russia of the ability to launch drones and missiles like Ukraine.

“Additional weapons and long-range missiles for Ukraine – to hasten the relief of our territories.” Russia must be defeated on the battlefield,” Yermak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.