site.btaUPDATED Romanian F-16s Scramble After Drone Briefly Enters Airspace

A drone briefly entered Romanian airspace before heading towards Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defence said on Monday. Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from 86th Air Base in Fetesti at 08:53 local time, the same as in Sofia, to monitor it.

The ministry said the target crossed the border and headed towards Ukraine after briefly entering national airspace. Explosions occurred on Ukrainian territory shortly afterwards.

Residents of north-eastern Tulcea County received an alert warning of objects falling from the sky.

The message urged them to remain calm and take shelter in basements or civil defence shelters. If none was available, residents were advised to stay indoors, away from windows and exterior walls.

Romania could invoke NATO’s Article 4 following the incursion, Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Toiu told Digi24. Article 4 allows any ally to request consultations when it considers its territory, political independence or security threatened. Toiu said military and diplomatic coordination with NATO allies was continuing, citing the deployment of the Merops counter-drone system and allied air-policing support.

On Sunday, a Romanian Air Force F-16 shot down a drone over Romania’s territorial waters in the Black Sea after it entered the country’s airspace without authorization. This was the third such incident in three days, after a drone was shot down over south-eastern Buzau County on Friday and another over Tulcea County, near the Danube Delta, on Saturday.

In 2025, the Romanian Parliament passed a law authorizing the country to shoot down drones that violated its airspace. Romania has a 650-km land border with Ukraine.

In May, a Russian drone crashed into an apartment block in Galati, near the border with Ukraine, injuring two people. The incident marked the first time an attack related to the war in Ukraine struck a populated area in a NATO member country and caused injuries, Reuters noted.

Romania recorded a total of 33 Russian drone incursions into its airspace between the start of the war in Ukraine and Monday.