NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) promised to protect “every inch” of the territory of its member countries after a Russian drone invaded Romanian airspace and hit, this Friday (29), a residential building in the city of Galati, located close to the border with Ukraine. A woman and a child suffered minor injuries in the incident, which escalated tensions between the Western bloc and Russia.
The impact of the drone caused an explosion, but did not cause more serious damage. Romanian experts analyzed the wreckage and confirmed that it carried at least 30 kilos of explosives.
Despite the evidence, to determine the origin of the drone and suggested that it could be Ukrainian.
During the CNN Prime Timethe international analyst at CNN Lourival Sant’Anna stated that this was the first case in which an entire drone, with its full explosive payload, crashed into a building in a city in an alliance member country.
He highlighted that Galati had already been targeted on at least 47 previous occasions, but without the direct impact of intact equipment.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte accused Russia of reckless behavior, while Ursula von der Leyen said the Russians had “crossed yet another line”. The unanimous condemnation of the Western bloc reflects the seriousness of the episode, classified as the first attack to hit a densely populated area and leave people injured in the territory of an alliance country since the beginning of the conflict.
Russian strategy to intimidate Europe
Lourival analyzed that the incident is part of a broader pattern of Russian actions aimed at intimidating the European population. “Putin’s strategy was to make the European population feel that they needed to defend themselves against Russia and not help Ukraine defend itself against Russia,” said the analyst.
According to him, in the previous year, Russian drones were sent in a covert manner to the European capitals of NATO countries, such as Copenhagen, Ljubljana and Warsaw.
For Sant’Anna, the objective behind this strategy would be to pressure the Europeans to reserve their scarce stocks of anti-aircraft weapons for eventual self-defense, instead of supplying them to Ukraine.
“A cold analysis of Russia’s economic and military reality clearly demonstrates that Russia is not in a position to expand this war, it would be complete suicide,” the analyst assessed, adding that the activation of NATO’s Article 5, in the event of a direct attack, would represent a devastating response for Moscow.
The analyst concluded that the smartest stance for Europeans would be to continue supporting Ukraine, which, according to him, has managed to advance on the ground, recover territory and greatly degrade the Russian economy.
In his assessment, this scenario could lead Putin to negotiate “in a more sincere and honest way”, instead of giving in to the fear of a direct Russian attack on Europe, which he classified as “a fantasy”.
