Romania shoots down three Russian drones, defends NATO's eastern flank amid political and fiscal crisis

Published Jul 31, 02:49 PM UTC

Romania is actively defending NATO's eastern border against repeated Russian drone incursions, despite lacking a functioning government and facing severe budget constraints. Over a recent weekend, Romanian F-16 pilots shot down three Russian drones that entered Romanian airspace, one each day. This follows over 80 drone incursions since 2022, including a May incident where a drone struck a residential building in Galați, injuring a mother and child—the first European casualties of the war outside Ukraine. The military's decision to engage drones came after public outcry. Romania subsequently expelled Russia's ambassador. Analysts view the incursions as a deliberate Russian test of NATO defenses, though they note the cost imbalance of using half-million-euro rockets to down cheap drones.