Army says drone found by local near Danube Delta entered Romania back in April

The Romanian Defense Ministry was notified on Monday, June 29, that a resident from Tulcea County found an unexploded drone. Experts who went to the scene established that the drone entered Romanian territory in April, probably during one of Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian cities on the Danube.

The drone landed in the area of Rachelu village, Luncavița commune, in the northwest of Tulcea County.

The ministry noted that “the fragments come from a drone used in the attacks carried out by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian port infrastructure in April 2026, before the air defense strengthening and adaptation measures adopted after the serious incidents in Galați.”

At that time, the Romanian Army announced that no drone had entered Romanian airspace. Later, residents of the municipality of Galați reported to 112 that a drone had fallen in the Bariera Traian area. After the residents’ report, IGSU and MAI teams arrived at the scene and found that the drone had hit an annex of a household and a power pole. The drone had not exploded, and the authorities also intervened at that time for a controlled detonation.

A second drone, which crashed about 20 km southeast of Galați municipality, in the area of Văcăreni (Tulcea), was later discovered. As in the case of the first drone, the Romanian Army had not detected its entry into national territory, but was informed by citizens about the presence of the remains.

“Since the beginning of the Russian Federation’s war of aggression against Ukraine, more than 100 attacks have been recorded on targets located in the vicinity of the border with Romania. In this context, 29 unauthorized incursions of Russian drones into national airspace have been reported, and in approximately 50 situations, drones or drone fragments have been identified on Romanian territory,” the Defense Ministry said on Facebook.

This year, Romania registered 15 unauthorized incursions of drones into national airspace. The most serious one occurred on May 29, when a Russian drone crashed into a residential apartment building in the Romanian city of Galați, triggering an explosion and a fire that injured two people and forced the evacuation of around 70 residents.

On Tuesday, June 30, the payload of the drone discovered by the Tulcea resident was detonated in a controlled manner at the site.

(Photo source: Trentinness|Dreamstime.com)