A Russian drone hit a residential building in Romania for the first time since the beginning of the invasion. It crashed into a house in the city of Galati, causing a fire and injuring two people.
A Russian drone entered Romania’s airspace, the Romanian Ministry of Defense announced on Friday night. According to the statement of the department, the unmanned aircraft crashed into the roof of an apartment building in the city of Galati, as a result of which a fire broke out. TASR informs about it according to a Reuters report.
In short:
- A Russian drone flew into Romanian airspace and hit the city of Galați
- The crash of a drone into the roof of an apartment building caused a fire
- In the incident in Galaţi, two people suffered minor injuries
At night, according to the ministry, Russia renewed drone attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure in Ukraine near the border with Romania.
Apartment building intervention
“One of these drones flew into Romanian airspace, the radar tracked it to the southern part of the city of Galați, where it crashed into the roof of an apartment building and caused a fire,” the statement quoted by AFP said. According to her, this is the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that a residential building has been hit on the territory of Romania.
Romanian emergency services reported on Facebook that two people suffered minor injuries. According to the statement, the drone hit an apartment on the tenth floor, detonating the entire load of explosives. Approximately 70 people were evacuated. The fire was extinguished in the meantime.
Attack on the port of Izmail
Ukrainian authorities said several drones attacked the river-sea port of Izmail on the Danube in the Odesa region on the border with Romania on Friday night, according to Reuters. The port infrastructure in this area is a frequent target of Russian attacks.
Late on Thursday evening, the Romanian television TVR also reported on the discovery of a drone that did not carry explosives in the northwest of Romania. Local authorities secured the area and began investigating the origin of the drone and how it got into the area. According to television, the plane had a wingspan of approximately three meters.
Repeated violation of boundaries
As a member of the EU and NATO, Romania has a 650-kilometer long land border with Ukraine. Since Russia launched attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube, there have been repeated violations of Romanian airspace. In late April, a Russian drone crashed on the outskirts of the city of Galati, and its falling debris damaged a power pole and a building.
