A Russian drone struck an apartment building in Romania in what was condemned by Bucharest as a “serious and irresponsible escalation” by Moscow and described by Nato as “reckless”.
The incident in the southeastern city of Galaţi, which injured two people, is the most serious military spillover in a Nato and European Union member state resulting from Russia’s more than four-year-long war against neighbouring Ukraine.
Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled just after 1am on Friday in response to the drone entering Romanian air space, the country’s defence ministry said. The drone crashed into the roof of a residential building and started a fire.
The incident follows a spate of drone incursions into Baltic member states in recent weeks that respective governments have blamed on Moscow diverting Ukrainian drones. Last September, about 20 Russian military drones violated Poland’s airspace, sparking a Nato response that saw jets shoot down a number of them.
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“Romania ... will not accept, under any circumstances, that the war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine be transferred to its citizens,” said Romanian president Nicușor Dan.
Dan said he had convened a meeting of the country’s national security council on Friday morning, and had asked the foreign ministry to draw up “a series of measures to be taken regarding the relationship with the Russian Federation, proportionate to this very serious situation”.
Bucharest has also “formally requested that allies move additional anti-drone capabilities to the national territory”, Dan said, in a move he said was co-ordinated with Nato’s supreme allied commander for Europe.
[ How Europe is preparing for potential Ukraine talks with PutinOpens in new window ]
The EU and Nato have launched initiatives to strengthen their eastern air defences, particularly from drones, amid repeated warnings from national intelligence agencies that Russian president Vladimir Putin was conducting a “hybrid war” against the continent and could be in a position to launch a conventional military attack before the end of the decade.
“Russia’s reckless behaviour is a danger to us all,” said Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, after a call with Dan. “Last night showed yet again that the implications of their illegal war of aggression don’t stop at the border.
“Nato stands ready to defend every inch of allied territory. We will continue to enhance our readiness to deter and defend against any threat, including from drones,” Rutte added.
“Russia’s war of aggression has crossed yet another line,” said European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. She added that the EU would “continue strengthening our security and deterrence, especially on our eastern border [and] will keep increasing the pressure on Russia”, including a new package of sanctions against Moscow being prepared.
Putin refused to accept responsibility for the incident and implied Ukraine was instead responsible. He said Russia would conduct an “objective investigation” of the incident if Romania transferred the debris from the drone.
“Nobody can say where this drone originated until an expert analysis is conducted,” Putin said, decrying what he said were previous “baseless” accusations that Russian drones entered the airspace of other European countries.
“Then, shortly after, it turned out that this had nothing to do with Russian drones, and it was Ukrainian drones that were knocked off course by radio-electronic warfare or for some other reasons, they flew there because of technical issues and crashed.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Russian drone was part of “a deliberate strike on our southern region of Odesa, which borders Romania”.
“This was yet another cynical attack on civilian infrastructure in our cities and in our waters, targeting civilian container ships,” the Ukrainian leader said.
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
