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NATO accused Moscow of irresponsible behavior on Tuesday and said it would "defend every inch of allied territory" after Romania said a Russian drone hit a residential building in the alliance member country during an attack on neighboring Ukraine.
The Romanian Defense Ministry said a woman and a child suffered minor injuries overnight in Galati, near the border with Ukraine, after radar detected a Russian drone entering Romanian airspace.
Photos from the scene show charred and damaged bricks on the roof of a ten-story building, which Romanian authorities said was hit by a drone that exploded upon impact, penetrating an apartment on the top floor, Reuters reported.
Russian news agency TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that President Vladimir Putin had been informed of the incident. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said all allegations of Russian drones flying over Europe were unfounded, RIA reported.
While Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's powerful Security Council, warned European leaders that drones will continue to end up in their countries and prevent their populations from sleeping in peace.
It was the first time a densely populated area in a NATO member state has been hit and wounded during Russia's war in Ukraine. Reuters reports that the incident is likely to further heighten tensions on the alliance's eastern flank, as members are increasingly concerned that the war could spread beyond their borders.
"Russia's irresponsible behavior poses a danger to us all," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced on the X platform after speaking by phone with Romanian President Nicușor Dan, whose country is a member of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union.
“I have confirmed that NATO is ready to defend every inch of allied territory,” he said, without mentioning the possibility of activating NATO’s mutual defense clause. “We will continue to strengthen our readiness to deter and defend against any threat, including drones.”
Dan said the Russian consulate in the southeastern city of Constanta would be closed and the consul expelled.
TASS quoted Zakharova as saying that Moscow would respond quickly to Bucharest's decision to close the consulate.
Romania, which shares a 650-kilometer land border with Ukraine, said Russian drones have violated its airspace 28 times since Moscow began attacking Ukrainian ports across the Danube River, following the launch of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Steven Evelyn, a 44-year-old American citizen living in Galați, called it “another Russian provocation.”
"I don't believe this was an accident, it's happened many times that the Russians do it by accident ," he said. "Or they are completely incapable of waging war, but NATO needs to do something about this."
There have been several incursions into NATO airspace since Moscow invaded Ukraine, most notably on the night of September 9-10, when more than 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace.
Ukrainian drones have entered the airspace of the Baltic states in recent weeks, causing confusion and increasing tensions with Russia.
Romania has asked its NATO allies to deploy additional anti-drone capabilities in the country, with official sources saying Bucharest needs low-altitude radars and drone interceptors. A NATO spokesman said at the time that "other possible defensive measures are being considered."
Local authorities in southern Ukraine said the port of Izmail in the Odessa region, across the border from Galati, was the target of a drone attack this morning.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev is ready to support Romania "in any way necessary."
The Romanian Defense Ministry said two F-16 fighter jets had been scrambled and a military helicopter had been sent to monitor the attack, with pilots authorized to shoot down any drones without endangering populated areas. Residents of the border counties of Braila, Galati and Tulcea were warned to evacuate.
The drone stayed in Romanian airspace for four minutes and was flying at a low altitude of 10 kilometers, making it difficult to detect by radar, Romanian Brigadier General George Maxim said.
He told a press conference that, although the American Merops anti-drone system is operational in Romania, it is not yet fully integrated with the national air defense and it would be very dangerous to use it in the city.
In addition to the woman and her child, who were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, two people were treated at the scene for panic attacks and 70 others were evacuated from the apartment building, local authorities said.
Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat, who heads the emergencies agency, told private television Digi24 that the drone damaged two staircases in the building, an elevator shaft and five carriages.
In April, a drone damaged both an electric pole and a domestic utility building in Galați.
In a separate incident, a drone without an explosive payload was found in northwestern Romania, state broadcaster TVR reported late Thursday, citing local authorities.
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