LONDON, May 30. /TASS/. Britain may dispatch additional fighter jets to Romania in the wake of the drone incident in Galati, Secretary of State for Defense of the United Kingdom John Healey announced.
"RAF (Royal Air Force - TASS) jets are already deployed to Romania to support NATO air policing. We will work with the NATO Secretary General to help strengthen that presence if needed," Healey posted on X.
Four RAF Typhoons from a fighter squadron are already in Romania on a four-month air policing mission of the North Atlantic Alliance, The Times reported.
On May 29, the Romanian Defense Ministry said that a drone crashed onto the roof of an apartment building in Galati. Bucharest blamed the incident on Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in response to a TASS reporter’s question in Astana that the incident involving a UAV in Romania was most likely caused by a Ukrainian drone. He noted that that there have already been instances of Ukrainian drones crashing in European countries. According to the president, Russia is ready to conduct an impartial investigation if the wreckage of the drone that crashed in Romania is handed over to it. "Only then will we be able to assess what has happened," he explained.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakahrova argued in an interview with TASS that Western media hyped up the drone incident in Romania to divert attention from the killing of children in Starobelsk by Vladimir Zelensky and to justify the closure of the Russian consulate general in Constanta.