The Minister of Defense, about the shooting down of drones from the Romanian border: “It is an extraordinarily fine matter”
The Minister of National Defense, Radu Miruţă, stated on Digi24 that the Romanian armed forces cannot under any circumstances shoot down the drones that enter Romania's airspace, because there are situations in which there is a risk of them falling into populated areas.
Miruţă also says that, moreover, there are cases in which the drones involved in the war in Ukraine and whose target is the Ukrainian ports on the Danube enter the Romanian airspace for just a few seconds.
“Very borderline” situations
“There are surfaces and areas where Romania can shoot down drones without any problem, there are surfaces and areas where there are risks that, depending on the position of the drone, are analyzed in that second, lest I frame the drone, launch an attack against it and affect the population, because they are drones with explosive charges, there are areas whose projection can be above the localities and then not everything that flies is justified to be shot down, if the consequences are much greater”, said Radu Miruţă, quoted by News.ro.
He emphasized that Romania cannot shoot down from its territory a drone that is in the airspace of Ukraine.
Radu Miruţă also says that the matter regarding the entry of drones from Ukraine into Romania's airspace is “an extraordinarily fine matter, because they are drones that go with dedication to the Ukrainian ports on the Danube and which, on their trajectory, for a fraction of a moment, can pinch the Romanian airspace”.
“The situation is very borderline, in such cases, because it lasts for a few seconds, what happened yesterday was not a drone that penetrated deep into the national territory and was not shot down”, added the Minister of National Defense, noting that on Friday the squadrons of two fighter planes from Romania rose three times, in the context of drone attacks on Ukrainian ports located close to the border with Romania.
Three alerts in Tulcea in one day
The representatives of the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations Tulcea announced that, on Friday evening, a new RO-Alert message was issued for the northern area of the county, this being the third during the day of Friday by which the population is warned about the possibility of objects falling from the airspace.
The first RO-Alert message was launched by the authorities during the morning, at 10.05 am. The anti-aircraft defense systems were put on alert, and two F-16 aircraft from the 86th Borcea Air Base took off to research and monitor the airspace, reports MApN.
“From the data available up to this time, it is possible that drone remains have also fallen on Romanian territory, in the Chilia Veche area. Specialized teams are prepared to intervene in the field to start a search operation”, announced the MApN.
Following the detection of new drones in the immediate vicinity of Romanian airspace, a second RO-Alert message was sent to the population of the Danube Delta area.
“Around 11:55, two Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft of the German Air Force, in the service of the Reinforced Air Police, were lifted from the 57th “Mihail Kogălniceanu” Air Base. The air alert ended at around 12:50 p.m.,” stated the Ministry of Defense.
