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Russian President Vladimir Putin has disputed Romania’s claim that a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building in the NATO member country, suggesting it could have been Ukrainian.
Getting into it: Romania’s defense ministry said the drone, which it identified as Russian, was tracked by radar before it slammed into the roof of a 10-story residential block in the eastern city of Galați, where its full explosive payload detonated. A mother and her child went to the hospital with minor injuries, two others got treated on scene for panic attacks, and roughly 70 residents cleared out of the building. The military scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a helicopter whose pilots were authorized to shoot the drone down, but radar lost contact with it as it dropped low over the city.
Romania, which is also an EU member, condemned the incident as “a serious and irresponsible escalation” by Russia. Foreign Minister Oana Toiu said the country would pursue “diplomatic measures in response to this serious violation of international law and its airspace,” and confirmed that Bucharest had asked NATO to speed up the transfer of anti-drone systems. NATO, for its part, blasted “Russia’s recklessness” and pledged to “defend every inch of Allied territory,” a notable show of concern given that this was the first time such an incident drew blood on alliance soil.
Putin pushed back on the claims. Speaking in Kazakhstan, he asked, “Who in Romania says that this is a Russian drone?” and pointed to past incidents in Poland and the Baltics where, he claimed, initial blame on Russia proved wrong.
He even offered to have Russia conduct its own investigation if Romania shared the debris. Still, Romania has a long track record of spillover, with its defense ministry reporting that Russian drones have crossed into its airspace 28 times and that fragments have come down on Romanian soil 47 times since the war began.
This all comes as the war increasingly threatens to spill across borders, with the Galați strike following a wave of Russian drone incursions over Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania last year.






