NATO member Romania scrambled fighter jets overnight after Russia attacked Ukrainian infrastructure close to the alliance’s border, according to Bucharest.
Romania detected “groups of drones” heading over the Black Sea for Ukraine close to Romanian airspace just after 11:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, the country’s defense ministry said. Authorities triggered an air alert in Romania’s Tulcea county, the ministry said, as Moscow “carried out a new series of drone attacks on civilian and infrastructure targets in Ukraine.”
The town and broader region of Tulcea sit directly across the border from the Ukrainian port of Izmayil, which Russia has repeatedly attacked. The Danube River marks the border between the two countries, just north of Tulcea.
Two Romanian Air Force F-16 fighter jets took off from Borcea Air Base to the southwest of Tulcea “to monitor the situation,” the ministry said. The air base sits east of the capital.