BUCHAREST, May 29. /TASS/. A drone of unknown origin crashed onto the roof of an apartment building in the Romanian city of Galati in the early hours of May 29, the eastern European nation’s Defense Ministry said.
Radio Romania reported that an explosion caused by the crash left a woman and her underage child with burns.
TASS has gathered the key information about the incident.
Details of incident
- A drone crashed into a residential building in the city of Galati in eastern Romania, the Mediafax news agency reported.
- Radio Romania said that the drone crashed into a 10-story apartment building in the city center around 2:00 a.m.
- The Romanian Defense Ministry did not specify the origin of the unmanned aerial vehicle.
- According to Mediafax, the crash caused an explosion and a fire in one apartment.
- About 70 people were evacuated from the building.
Casualties
- The drone crash left two people injured.
- Radio Romania specified that a woman and her underage child in a tenth-floor apartment suffered minor burns and were taken to the hospital.
Defense Ministry’s statements
- The Romanian Defense Ministry’s radars detected drones flying near the country’s airspace, the ministry said.
- According to the ministry, two F-16 aircraft on Air Policing duty were scrambled from the 86th Air Base in Fetesti at 1:09 a.m., backed by an IAR 330 SOCAT helicopter of the Romanian Air Force.
- The pilots were authorized to engage targets throughout the air raid alert, the Romanian Defense Ministry noted.
- The ministry added that radars tracked the drone to the southern suburb of the city of Galati, where it crashed onto the roof of an apartment building.
Romania’s response
- The Romanian Defense Ministry said that expert teams were working at the site of the crash.
- The country’s Foreign Ministry reported that Bucharest had informed NATO allies and the bloc’s secretary general of the incident.
- The ministry also demanded that measures be taken to speed up the handover of anti-drone equipment to Romania.
- Romania’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador Vladimir Lipayev to notify him of the measures Bucharest will take at the diplomatic level.
- Later, Romanian President Nicusor Dan announced the country’s decision to close Russia’s consulate general in the city of Constanta and declare the Russian consul general persona non grata.
Global reaction
- Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico called on the EU to immediately launch dialogue with Russia.
- Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban urged the country's new government, led by Peter Magyar, to maintain neutrality in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
- Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Marcin Kosiniak-Kamysz suggested expanding NATO’s Operation Eastern Sentry on the bloc’s eastern flank.
Russia’s reaction
- Russian President Vladimir Putin is aware of the drone incident in Romania, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
- The Westerners seek to hype up the Romania drone incident in order to divert attention from Vladimir Zelensky’s killing of children in Starobelsk, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS.
- Moscow’s retaliatory measures in response to Romania’s move to declare Russia’s consul general persona non grata and close the consulate will follow soon, she added.
- European Union countries should better keep quiet about the drone strike on a residential building in Romania because they are directly involved in the war against Moscow, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev pointed out.