Drone fragments discovered in southern Romania, alerts near border with Ukraine

Drone fragments were discovered on the night of Monday to Tuesday, September 28 to 29, on farmland in the Great Brăila Island, southern Romania.

“On the morning of Tuesday, September 29, the Ministry of National Defence was informed about the discovery of fragments of an object, possibly a drone, which fell on farmland in the Great Brăila Island, near the locality of Gropeni, Brăila County,” representatives of the Ministry of National Defence announced.

Teams from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Romanian Intelligence Service arrived at the scene and secured the perimeter, and will investigate the identified fragments.

The radars of the Ministry of National Defence did not detect any unauthorized incursion into the airspace during the past night.

“We point out that the radar systems of the Ministry of National Defence did not report any unauthorized incursion into the national airspace during the past night,” ministry representatives also said.

Separately, the Ministry of National Defence's radar surveillance system detected an aerial target flying north of Isaccea, near the river border with Ukraine, during the same night.

The Spanish Air and Space Force scrambled two F-18 aircraft to monitor the situation. However, no incursions into the national airspace were detected.

The National Military Command Centre notified the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations about measures to alert the population in northern Tulcea County, and at 1:51 AM, a RO-Alert message was sent. The air alert ended at 2:10 AM.

Since the start of the war, drones have illegally entered Romanian national airspace 49 times. Four of them were shot down.