President Iohannis assures: No drone exploded in Romania

President Klaus Iohannis says that there was “no drone and no other part of any device” that reached Romania following the latest attack launched by the Russians on Monday on Ukrainian ports on the Danube. According to him, even today, however, attacks took place 800 meters away from the Romanian border.

Iohannis made these statements in a press conference held with the Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, following a visit to the Joint Training Center “Getica” – Cincu in Brașov.

“There was no part, and no drone and no other part of any device that arrived in Romania. We have total control over our national space.    I checked absolutely everything and I can reassure the population. There was nothing that reached Romania. But yes, we are worried because these attacks are taking place at a very short distance from the Romanian border“, President Klaus Iohannis declared on Tuesday.

“We had attacks just today that were verified 800 meters from our border. So very, very close. But we are alert, we are, alert and we are very well defended within NATO. Romania benefits from extremely strong security guarantees, the strongest in our history”, he emphasized.

Asked what Romania would do in the situation where a drone from the war started by Russia in Ukraine falls if it is possible to activate Article 5 and the battalion in Cincu to engage in combat operations, Iohannis said that he knows exactly who, when and what to do if something falls on NATO ground. “At the last NATO summit, we decided on some concrete things and I know exactly who, when and what must be done if something falls on NATO soil, if an event occurs, if the magnitude of the event is something that exceeds very clear things stated in our procedures, everyone knows very clearly when and how to do it”, the Romanian head of state said.

He added that there is a scenario and a plan for every possible incident, emphasizing that such information is not public: “It is obvious, it does not mean that we want something like this to happen. We do not want these incidents to take place on NATO soil, which, in this case, is Romania”.

Kyiv claimed on Monday that Russian drones fell and detonated on Romanian territory during the attack on Monday morning in the Danube area. The Defense and Foreign Ministers in Bucharest have yet denied this information, but Ukraine insisted, saying it had “photographic evidence”.

“According to the Ukrainian state border guard service, last night, during a massive attack by Russia near the port of Izmail, Russian Shahed (drones) fell and exploded on the territory of Romania,” the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Oleg Nikolenko stated.

However, both the Romanian Ministry of National Defense and the Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu “categorically” denied the information.

Kyiv insisted, however, with Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba saying, after a press conference held in Kiev, that Ukraine has photographic evidence showing that Russian drones hit Romanian territory during an overnight airstrike. “I think that, in this particular case, they (the Romanian authorities – n.r.) are now studying all aspects of what happened. There is no point in denying that something fell there. And we state with authority, with evidence, that it was Shahed drones that flew there. We have photographic evidence that something fell there,” Kuleba said, according to Ukrinform.