Russian Drone Strikes Romanian Apartment Building; NATO States Condemn
A Russian drone launched against Ukraine crashed into an apartment building in Galati, eastern Romania — a NATO member state — in the early hours of Friday, injuring two people and triggering a fire. NATO members swiftly condemned Russia after the incident, which adds to concern that Moscow’s war on Ukraine risks spilling over into neighbouring NATO territory. Romanian authorities scrambled F-16 fighter jets during the overnight Russian strike package on Ukraine. The Russian Foreign Ministry has not commented. The drone strike follows a pattern of intermittent Russian drone incursions into NATO airspace since the start of the Ukraine war.
Galati city sits on the Romania-Ukraine-Moldova borderlands and has been within range of Russian drones launched from southern Russia and occupied Crimea throughout the war. Russian drones have crashed in Romania, Poland and Latvia in previous incidents during the four-year conflict; the apartment-building strike is the most significant residential-area drone impact in a NATO state to date. The Romanian government has said it views the strike as a violation of its airspace and sovereignty; NATO Article 4 consultation is on the table if the pattern continues. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s appeal to the US for more air defence systems — made Thursday with the framing of “eliminate Putin’s last advantage” — lands into a NATO-side political environment that the Romania strike materially tightens.