Latvia and Romania, NATO members, and allies of Ukraine, have also claimed that Russian drones breached their airspace. Romania said that one of its equipped drones flew above it during the night raids over the Danube River in Ukraine on early Sunday, as Latvia received information of a drone crash in its eastern territory the previous day.
The Ministry of National Defence of Romania reported using F-16 to patrol the skies to provide safety. It started the search for wreckage in an area suspected to have had a crash along the border. Thank God, there were no losses or injuries, or at least news about them has not arrived. The Romanian government deplored the ‘renewed violation’ resulting from Moscow’s ‘illegal attacks. ’
According to Latvian president Edgars Rinkevics, there has been a crash of a Russian military drone that reportedly flew in from Belarus and crashed near Rezekne town, which is approximately 55 kilometers away from Russia and 75 kilometers from Belarus, an ally of the Kremlin.
Russian drones rarely enter Latvian airspace, whereas Romania has previously found debris from crashed drones when Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine started in February of 2022. Consequently, Romania, with a 650 km border with Ukraine, is always at risk of such happening.
The outgoing NATO deputy secretary-general, Mircea Geoana, criticized the violation of Romanian airspace, explaining that although it cannot be considered an intentional attack against the NATO allies, it is unwise and can create potential risks.
It should be noted that in recent days and nights, Russia has stepped up its bombardment of Ukrainian cities, most of which are Danube River ports practically situated in Romanian territory at a distance of several meters.
The airspace violations were condemned by Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who said that this should be a wake-up call that Russia’s hostilities are not contained within Ukraine. He has requested tangible support from partners by pushing for stepped-up air security and faster delivery of weapons to Ukraine.
Poland has also claimed interference by Russian missiles or drones over its airspace while aiming at Ukraine, with reports made as late as December. At the moment, Romania legislatures are debating a bill that proposes the military to shoot invading drones during a time of peace.
