Article by Remus Dinu – Published on Monday, 17 November 2025 20:56 / Updated on Tuesday, 18 November 2025 01:03
Dan Popescu, 37 years old, from Tulcea who played at FCSB in the 2016-2017 season, was at ACS Poli Timișoara and Oțelul, currently a youth coach in Tulcea, in the “county”, is aware of the alarming situation on the Danube, where a boat loaded with LPG was engulfed in flames due to a Russian drone attack. During the day, the authorities evacuated dozens of people from the localities of Plauru and Ceatalchioi, due to the imminent threat of an explosion.
The consequences of the Russian attacks on the border are being felt again in Tulcea, a county put on guard by the drones that regularly attack the Ismail port in Ukraine. Frequently disturbed by the alerts issued by the authorities and forced to take shelter during air raids carried out on the opposite bank, the Romanians from the localities located on the border are particularly in trouble.
Concern and risk of explosion on the Danube
On Monday morning, a ship loaded with LPG was engulfed in flames in close proximity to the port of Ismail in Ukraine following a drone attack. The damaged ship, which was later found to be Turkish-flagged, had 4,400 tons of liquefied petroleum gas on board.
The fire on board the boat alerted the authorities, who are still afraid of a major explosion and possible damage in a radius of 4-5 kilometers, journalists from Libertatea informed during the day.
Consequently, the Romanian authorities decided to evacuate the residents of Plauru and Ceatalchioi in Tulcea County, where Raed Arafat, the head of the ISU, considers even the worst scenario, an explosion of the boat already on fire.
The burning boat on the Ukrainian bank of the Danube / Photo source: Facebook @ Vitalie Cojocari
Settled in Tulcea, Dan Popescu, one of the well-known names that football from Tulcea gave to Romanian football, revealed, in a dialogue with Gazeta Sporturilor, how the population of the area perceived the alarming events that happened in the last hours.
Popescu, five matches at FCSB nine seasons ago, winner of the League Cup with the red-blues, talks about the reluctance with which the inhabitants of the risk areas received the news that they had to leave their households.
“I got information from the left and the right, I also spoke with the mayor of Ceatalchioi, and the thing is a bit nasty. We are in Tulcea… The explosions were also heard last night, I am in Tulcea, this is where I live.
Plauru is close to conflict… But there were very few inhabitants who stayed there. The mayor told me that there are still around 20-22 people. Indeed, they got them out of there. Some didn't want to, because they had animals. They also evacuated some people from Ceatalchioi. The older ones said they didn't want to go, they said: “I have a pig, I have a goat, I have chickens, I have cows, where should I go?”. And there was an argument with the ISU, with the mayor, there is still a state of emergency there.
The firemen are still there, as far as I know it is a large vessel that is under the Turkish flag. It's a nasty thing, there are firefighters, ISU, who won't let you in, they evacuated those there, they put them in a cultural home somewhere in Tulcea, about 5 kilometers from the risk area.
The drone that fell on the ship is not even a kilometer from Plauru. The ship had been anchored at Ismail for a week,” stated Daniel Popescu, in dialogue with GSP.
“If you sit on the cliff, you can hear the drones from Tulcea. We're used to it”
The former football player from FCSB also says that the people of the area have become familiar with the atmosphere of war, although, as tourists, the effects of the conflict are felt in full:
“But know that the people in that area are taught… The first night when they gave the RO-Alert, there was panic, then people got scared, but with their usual timing.
And we hear the drones, from Tulcea. If you sit somewhere on the cliff, you can hear them. When they hit the other side of the Danube with bombs and drones, you see and hear these things from Tulcea, you hear how they explode. But I got used to it.
But I have many friends with guesthouses, with boats, and they told me that a lot of tourists put off coming. If we refer to how many tourists there were before… You had no place to throw a needle in the Danube Delta, but people are scared now.
Many Russian drones fell here, some were shown on TV, some were not. We, in Tulcea, in the city, are not so scared, but the people of Delta, where you can only get there by boat, have reason to be worried”, the former defender said.
Dan Popescu, in one of his appearances at FCSB / Photo source: Gazeta Sporturilor Archive
I retired, my last appearance was at Oțelul, in the year when I was promoted to League 2. In recent years, injuries came upon me, I was operated on my shoulder and Achilles tendon. My shoulder jumped at a dam with Foresta Suceava. The problems came rolling in, I also had something on my knee.
Last year I played in the county championship with Delta Tulcea, now I have two groups of juniors, we are trying to start over with football in Tulcea.
– Dan Popescu, ex-FCSB
5 appearancesDan Popescu scored in all competitions at FCSB
