“One of the drones escaped from this swarm, striking a property.” MApN, new details about the drone that fell in the city of Galati. Why didn't the pilots shoot it down

The Russian drone that fell on the night of Friday to Saturday in the Bariera Traian area in the municipality of Galati damaged an electricity pole from the national network and a workshop in a household, announced Cristian Popovici, spokesperson of MApN, to Digi24.

• The Traian Barrier area, on the outskirts of Galaţi, is about 15 kilometers from the nearest border with Ukraine and about 20 kilometers from the Rhine.
• Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we have had 44 situations in which fragments from drones were identified on Romanian territory.

“Indeed, a serious incident took place this morning, when a drone of the Russian Federation entered the national airspace and damaged public and private properties, namely an electricity pole from the national grid and a workshop from a household. The army respected the legal procedures given by law 73 of 2025 regarding the control of use in the national airspace,” said Cristian Popovici, spokesman for MApN, in an intervention at Digi24.

Why didn't the pilots shoot down the drone

The spokesman of the MApN stated that the ground radars, around 02:00, detected “a swarm of drones” near the border with Ukraine.

“The Torrejon Main Air Center was alerted, which raised the British aircraft from Fetești to monitor the situation. At 02:14, the RO-Alert signal was issued to the population of the Grindu area, because the trajectories indicated a possible penetration into the airspace. A single radar signal was detected somewhere 1.5km from the town of Reni, above Ukraine,” Popovici said.

The MApN spokesman explained that the pilots had permission to fire, but said the drone was over Ukraine's airspace

“The pilots had the approval to shoot, the pilots always have the authority to neutralize these drones, it's a simple procedure, you don't need who knows what approvals. It's just that this drone was over Ukrainian territory and in the current situation no kind of employment could be done,” Popovici said.

Ground radar tracked them. 15 drones were continuously tracked near the border with Ukraine, until they disappeared over the town of Reni, where multiple explosions were immediately reported. It seems that one of the drones escaped from this swarm hitting a property in the town of Galati.

Cristian Popovici, spokesperson of MApN:

The MApN spokesperson also described how the area where the drone fell looks like on Saturday morning.

“We have soldiers from the 300 ISR battalion, who support the police and the IGSU to secure the area. We have an intervention detachment with a specialist in the neutralization of munitions, who are on site. I understand that there is only one damage, a workshop within a household whose wall was damaged and an electricity pole,” Popovici added.

“The army has the necessary tools to deal with such risks, only the situation is more complicated than it seems. This is not a video game. We do not engage drones in any situation, the ultimate responsibility rests with the pilot who presses the trigger button and the consequences must always be assessed. I repeat, all the drones identified by the Romanian and British radars were visualized above the airspace of Ukraine, which excludes any kind of engagement”, stated Popovici.

“The air defense systems with the ground base were also in firing position. In the peace situation we are in now we cannot fire, we cannot fire, especially if there are any indications that the result of our fire could lead to a more serious situation,” Popovici said.