Oana Ţoiu's reply after the statements of the Russian ambassador to the UN about the drone that fell in Romania

The Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oana Ţoiu, had a harsh reply, on Monday, at the meeting of the UN Security Council, for the representative of Russia at the UN, after he stated that there is no evidence that the drone that hit a block of flats in Galati is Russian, writes News.ro. “Those who have no arguments to explain their behavior are trying to run away from responsibility and change the truth with their own stories. Our presence and interventions today come to defend the truth to ensure that those who are victims of aggression are not themselves represented as aggressors,” said Ţoiu.

“This reckless behavior and violation of the principles that protect people's lives shows our contempt for diplomatic efforts and violation of international laws. We are once again faced with a great paradox: we are looking for those responsible in this Council where the Russian Federation, as a permanent member, should ensure compliance with the UN Charter, and we see that it is the aggressor. This impunity is a deviation from the fundamental principles and purpose of the UN Charter, which is contrary to our principles of maintaining of peace and security through good faith and cooperation between member states. Several members of the Council have shown in advance that this type of escalation represents a challenge to international peace and security and must be condemned as such,” said Minister Oana Ţoiu, on Monday, at the UN Security Council, meeting in New York, at Romania's request.

She showed, in her speech, that victims of aggression should not be presented as aggressors themselves.

“In this room, in the Security Council, words have great power. It is the consummate legitimacy of this institution that hosts such a dialogue, even if the dialogue is not carried out in comfortable terms. That is precisely why we need answers, as we have seen in these days, and answers to these clear violations of international laws. We must support the path to peace on our border. That is precisely why we are speaking here today and we are grateful for your interventions. The truth does not come out alone, it must be protected. Just as we must protect the facts. Sometimes those who do not have arguments to explain their behavior try to change the truth with their own stories. Our presence and interventions come to ensure that those who are victims of aggression are not themselves represented as aggressors. Romania will continue to be a reliable partner and we are grateful for the international support received from the community”, added the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Ţoiu reaffirmed that the analyzes carried out by the Romanian military indicate, without a doubt, that the drone that fell over a block of flats, in Galati, is of Russian origin.

“The military's analysis shows us clearly, without a doubt, that the drone that hit the block in Galati is a Russian-made Geran drone. The conclusion is that of the technical report made by the technical investigators and presented to the public by the Romanian president. We rely on evidence of a technical nature. In addition to the Geran 2 inscription in Cyrillic characters, the recovered fragments show us that the electronic components – the navigation system, the control module, the engine, the construction method – are similar to those of other Geran 2 drones previously recovered in Romania and identified as being produced in the Russian Federation. The report also shows technical inscriptions, traces of production, materials that use the same technological process, and the chemical analysis shows the same origin”, explained Oana Ţoiu.

The Romanian official said that the state of war should not be seen as the “new normal” in Ukraine, calling for pressure on the Russian Federation to stop aggression in the neighboring country. “The courage of the Ukrainians, their sacrifice, the power of innovation and resistance must be respected and supported. But because they have the power to defend themselves more and more, we must not consider that this is the new normality, but continue to increase the diplomatic pressure on the aggressor to stop him”, argued Oana Ţoiu.

What was Russia's position at the meeting convened by the UN at Romania's request

The representative of Russia at the UN Security Council meeting claimed that Romania called the meeting “in a hurry” and brought “unfounded accusations” against Russia regarding the incident that happened last week in Galati, News.ro writes.

According to Vasili Nebenzia, Russia did attack the Ukrainian port of Odesa, but he rejected allegations that the drone that exploded in Galati was one of those launched by Russia at Odesa, arguing that if it had, it would have caused considerably more damage.

He instead blamed Europe's “belligerent rhetoric” “against Russia”, saying that this incident is being used precisely to support that rhetoric.

The Russian official spoke again about “Ukrainian Nazis” and about Russian “victims”, citing an “anti-Russian propaganda machine” that uses as “opportunities to make accusations against Russia every time a fragment of a drone falls on the territory of a European state”.

The permanent representative of Russia at the United Nations, Vasili Alekseievici Nebenzia, accused the Romanian authorities of disinformation in relation to the incident in Galaţi.

“We know that Romania hastily convened this meeting, bringing unfounded and non-objective accusations against Russia. We believe that the purpose of this meeting is to satisfy the demand of Western countries to respond to the accusations propagated by the anti-Russian Western media. I want to present the objective version of events, because the details provided by the Romanians regarding the downing of the drone pose problems from a factual and technical point of view. The Russian armed forces have carried out operations targeting the military and civilian infrastructure of Kiev on May 29, in response to the terrorist attacks on the Russian civilian infrastructure. In these operations, we have targeted equipment from the Odesa region, through which there are loading-unloading operations of military equipment that are distributed to our civilian population. Of course, we destroy such cargoes as quickly as possible Romanians, there was an impact in the city of Galati, which is said to have been due to a Russian drone that would have hit a block. The load of such a drone is about 50 kilograms of explosives. If such a drone, as they say, had hit the roof of a block, the consequences would not have been limited to the fire shown by the Romanian media, the roof would have been completely destroyed,” argued Vasili Nebenzia.

He pointed out that “the circumstances of what happened must be established through a depoliticized investigation” in which Russia takes part, showing that the Russian Federation is willing to participate in such an investigation, “only if objective data and remains of the drones are provided for analysis.”

“Only in this case could we make an accurate assessment of what happened,” the Russian official said.
He stated that assessments of downed drones “must be based on assessments and not on political slogans”.

Nebenzia complained about “inconsistencies” in the statements of Romanian officials regarding the Galati incident.

“We draw your attention to the inconsistencies in the statements of Romanian officials. First of all, they talked about an alleged violation, an alleged Russian strike on a civilian target. Later, Romanian President Nicusor Dan said that it was the result of Ukrainian anti-aircraft activity that caused the drone to change its course and enter Romanian airspace. At the same time, the possibility of a provocation orchestrated by Kiev to test the reaction of NATO member states and their direct involvement in the crisis was not even considered. We also believe that it is no coincidence that this drone incident came a day after President Trump asked for help with missiles and anti-aircraft systems for him. It is unfortunate that Romania failed to provide objective data to the Russians his superior partners, as well as the allied command in Europe, which hastened to assign the blame to Russia. Instead of a professional cooperation, pre-prepared measures were taken, such as the closure of the Consulate in Constanta and the request that that consul leave Romania in 72 hours. Once again, instead of looking for the truth, they preferred to use an incident that was isolated to feed the anti-Russian history to gather ranks and stand against Russia”, said the Russian official.