In brief

• Romania scrambled four F-16 jets and a helicopter after two drones entered its airspace on the evening of 31 October.
• Six counties near the Moldovan border were placed on alert, and the alert was lifted at 19:19 local time.
• One drone left Romanian airspace; the other was last tracked between Vaslui and Bacau. No debris was reported.

Two drones cross into Romanian airspace

On the evening of Saturday, 31 October, radar systems of Romania's Ministry of National Defence detected two unmanned aerial vehicles that entered the country's airspace without permission (Країна НАТО підняла чотири винищувачі через два дрони: подробиці – TSN) (Румунія підіймала чотири винищувачі через порушення повітряного простору дронами – Європейська правда). The ministry said the incident was registered during Russian air attacks on Ukraine, which took place the same day.

Air force response and alerts

To monitor and control the situation, the command scrambled four F-16 fighter jets and an IAR-330 SOCAT helicopter. Residents of six counties, Iasi, Neamt, Vaslui, Botosani, Bacau and Suceava, received civil-protection warnings about a potential danger. The air-raid alert was cancelled at 19:19 local time.

Movements of the drones

According to the military, one of the drones later left Romanian airspace. The second was last tracked in the area between Vaslui and Bacau counties. No reports of debris or of aircraft falling to the ground had been received.

Moldova link

The same day, a drone also violated Moldovan airspace during the Russian strikes on Ukraine. On 23 October, Moldova's foreign ministry condemned an earlier drone violation and blamed the Russian Federation for it, after a drone came down about 100 metres from a house in the village of Cisteliniţa. Chisinau said it would declare a Russian embassy employee persona non grata. Romania is also negotiating with Moldova on joint programmes to counter drones.