NATO jet intercepts drone over Romania as Russian strikes claim lives in Ukraine
A Spanish F-18 fighter jet shot down a drone breaching Romanian airspace, a separate incident to Russian missile attacks that killed one woman and wounded seven in Ukraine.
Russian strikes on Ukraine have resulted in at least one fatality and seven injuries, including a woman in Kryvyi Rig, the hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In a separate incident, a Spanish F-18 fighter jet on a NATO air policing mission intercepted and shot down a drone that breached Romanian airspace. This marks the fourth drone breach in Romania this year.
Kyiv reported a ballistic missile attack late Saturday that wounded one person and caused fires in non-residential sites, while Moscow claimed to have downed over 100 Ukrainian drones overnight, resulting in three injuries from falling debris. Civilian casualties in Ukraine reached their highest level since 2022 in July, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission.
Romania’s Defence Ministry reported on Sunday that the Spanish pilot on the NATO mission had shot down the drone illegally entering national airspace. The ministry did not specify the origin of the drone, though it has previously blamed Russia for similar incidents.
The incident follows a pattern of repeated airspace violations along the 634km border with Ukraine. In May, a stray drone injured two people in Galati, and in July, a Romanian jet shot down a suspected Russian drone. Moscow has conducted near-daily missile and drone strikes across Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in early 2022.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted military and logistical facilities deep inside Russia as a response to Moscow’s bombardment. Meanwhile, the conflict has impacted Black Sea shipping lanes, with reports of mines and unmanned sea drones found floating in the region.
