Ukraine suggests Romania shoot down Russian drones and missiles “within a certain range” across the border

Romania should decide to shoot down Russian missiles and drones approaching its borders “within a certain range”, said Mihailo Podolyak, one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top advisers.

“We need action, not ‘silence of the lambs,'” he argued.

Podolyak’s statement comes after a Russian drone fell on the Romanian bank of the Danube earlier this week.

“Of course, no one expects NATO to invoke Article 5 and go to war with Russia over a metal can falling in a Romanian field. This is not the case. Russia allows itself to use the airspace of Romania and other neighbors to launch missile attacks on Ukraine for one reason only. Because there is silence. Perhaps it is worth articulating more firmly the inadmissibility of violating your own airspace? For example, by declaring readiness to shoot down these missiles and drones within a certain radius to protect your borders. Finally, the key point is that it is necessary to help Ukraine as soon as possible with additional air defense systems, to deploy them in the border areas. This will significantly increase the security of the countries bordering Ukraine and limit Russia’s speculative and provocative capabilities. We need simple actions, not the “silence of the lambs…”, Podolyak also said.

According to the authorities in Kyiv, Russian missiles have crossed the borders or airspace of Romania, Poland and the Republic of Moldova, the latter not being a NATO member, on several occasions since the beginning of the war.

Romania has though repeatedly denied that its airspace was crossed by Russian missiles and initially also denied that a Russian drone had fallen on its territory.

After a series of disputes with Kyiv, the Ministry of Defense in Bucharest finally admitted that it had discovered pieces of a drone on the Romanian bank of the Danube, which may have come from Russian attacks on grain warehouses in the Ukrainian ports of Izmail and Reni.

Remains of what is suspected to be a Russian drone were found in Ceatalchioi village, Tulcea,  located on the banks of the Danube . The Minister of Defense, Angel Tîlvăr, admitted on Wednesday that pieces of a Russian drone were found on Romanian territory. The remains are now being analyzed by authorities to verify if it is a Russian drone.

Nicolae Ciucă, president of the PNL and former PM and Minister of Defense, said on Friday, regarding the security incident on the border with Ukraine following the crashed drone, that people be confident that they are safe. Regarding the official communication on this topic, he said that “many times technique and technology do not help to see absolutely everything, and that it is necessary for a person to go to on the spot”.