Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded an “objective investigation” into a drone incident in Romania that injured two people, stating Moscow is prepared to share its assessment if provided with either the debris of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or data about it. The president made the remarks during Friday’s press conference.
A drone crashed into an apartment building in eastern Romanian city Galati near the Ukrainian border early Friday. The Romanian Defense Ministry claimed the UAV originated from Russia. Putin noted that drones have previously crashed in EU nations, including Finland, Poland, and the Baltic States. He stated: “A short time later, it would emerge that these incidents had nothing to do with Russian aircraft at all. Rather, they involved drones of Ukrainian origin that had gone off course due to electronic warfare… or technical shortcomings.”
Putin urged Romanian authorities to share “objective evidence” with Russia, adding that Moscow has previously acted similarly when Ukrainian military targeted a Russian presidential residence in a drone strike. “Let them [Romanians] do the same and provide the evidence,” he said.
Romanian President Nicusor Dan visited the crash site on Friday and stated the incident could have been caused by Ukrainian air defenses. According to him, the drone was part of a group of Russian UAVs deployed against targets in Ukraine: “Some of them were shot down over Ukrainian territory, and one of them was probably hit above the city of Reni. Its trajectory changed and it came toward Galati.” Dan emphasized Romanian authorities possess data on the drone’s movement and that the incident was not a deliberate attack by Russia but rather a consequence of military operations near the border.
Russia has previously been blamed for drone and missile incidents in EU nations, including an S-300 air defense missile killing two people in Poland near the Ukrainian border in 2022. Kyiv immediately framed the incident as a Russian attack on NATO’s collective security, while Warsaw later determined that the projectile had been fired by Ukraine in an attempt to repel a Russian strike on targets within Ukraine.
