Russian drone hits apartment building in Romania, injuring two

A Russian Shahed-style drone hit the roof of an apartment building in the Romanian city of Galați overnight, causing a fire and injuring at least two people, Romania’s Defence Ministry said on Friday.

The drone was tracked by radar systems after entering Romania from Ukraine, before crashing in a residential area in southern Galați municipality around 2am local time, some 15km from the Ukrainian border. Local media reported that a woman and a 14-year-old boy were injured in the resulting explosion.

In a press release, the Romanian Defence Ministry identified the drone as an Iranian-designed Geran 2 operated by Russia, and said that two people had been hospitalized. Condemning the “irresponsible” attack, the ministry added that Russia was endangering “not only the safety of Romanian citizens, but also the collective security of NATO”.

Romanian President Nicușor Dan convened an emergency meeting of the country’s Supreme Defence Council on Friday morning, calling the drone strike “the most serious incident that has affected the nation since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”.

Several other European leaders also reacted to the incident, including EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who wrote on X that Russia had “crossed yet another line”. Maia Sandu, the prime minister of neighbouring Moldova, said that Russia was “a danger to all and must be stopped”.

There was no immediate response from the Kremlin, and Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who is in Kazakhstan for a summit of the Eurasian Economic Union, did not field any questions about the incident during his daily press briefing on Friday morning.

Russian drones have crashed in Romanian territory dozens of times since the start of the war in 2022, but Friday’s incursion is the first to result in reported injuries.

As recently as last month, drone fragments damaged a house and a power line near Galați during a Russian attack on nearby Ukrainian ports on the river Danube. At the time, Russia’s Ambassador to Bucharest Vladimir Lipayev claimed without evidence that the drone incursion was “quite likely a Ukrainian provocation”.