Ukraine claimed that Russian drones detonated on the territory of Romania during an overnight airstrike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube River. However, Bucharest denied that its territory had been hit. Moscow has been conducting long-range airstrikes on targets in Ukraine since the start of its invasion last year. In July, Russia abandoned a deal that had lifted a de facto Russian blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, leading to repeated strikes on Ukrainian river ports across the Danube from Romania.
The Russian airstrike took place just hours before President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to discuss reviving the Black Sea deal with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, the sponsor of the deal. Ukraine’s state border guard service claimed that Russian “Shakheds,” referring to Iranian-made drones, fell and detonated on Romanian territory. Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, stated that this incident further confirmed the threat Russia poses to Ukraine’s security and neighboring countries, including NATO member states.
An image shared by Nikolenko on Facebook showed flames from an explosion visible from across a river, although Reuters could not immediately verify the vantage point of the image. The Romanian Defence Ministry firmly denied that Romania had been hit by Russian drones, emphasizing that Russia’s means of attack did not generate military threats to Romanian national territory or waters.
NATO, as a military alliance, holds a collective defense commitment, considering an attack on one ally to be an attack on all allies. In the meantime, officials in Kyiv reported that Monday’s attack had caused damage to Ukrainian warehouses and set buildings ablaze right before Erdogan’s scheduled meeting with Putin in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi. Erdogan, also a NATO member, has been supporting the Black Sea grain export deal and expressed hopes of persuading Putin to rejoin it. Russia had exited the deal in July, which had previously allowed Ukraine to export food safely through the Black Sea during the ongoing war.