The Romanian Ministry of National Defense announced that two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force and two "Eurofighter" aircraft of the Italian Air Force were sent to monitor and protect Romanian airspace last night due to an attack by Russian drones against Ukrainian civilian and port infrastructure targets near Tulcea, Agerpres reported.
„On the night of April 28-29, Russian forces carried out a series of drone strikes against civilian and port infrastructure targets in Ukraine, near the border with Romania. As a result of this situation, the National Military Command Center notified the General Inspectorate for Emergencies on Monday, at around 23:30, about the establishment of an air alert in Tulcea County and a warning message was sent to the population for the northeastern part of this county through the RO-ALERT system, the ministry said in a statement.
According to the procedures, two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force and two "Eurofighter" aircraft of the Italian Air Force, which are part of the mission to protect Romania's airspace, took off sequentially from the 86th Borcea Air Base and the 57th "Mihail Cogalnicanu" Air Base, respectively. and carried out surveillance and protection missions over Romanian airspace.
The air alert was lifted this morning at around 04:50, and the fighter jets returned to their bases.
During the execution of the attacks against Ukrainian targets, the Romanian radar surveillance system indicated the possibility that the trajectory of one of the drones involved in the attack crossed the national airspace for a very short period of time at a depth of up to 500 meters in Tulcea County, with the last contact with this air target being detected on Ukrainian territory.
The Romanian Ministry of Defense will carry out searches in areas where risks may arise as a result of these situations, and will continue airspace surveillance missions today according to standard procedures. Allied structures are also constantly informed about the situations caused by attacks.
The Ministry of National Defense remains firm in its condemnation of these attacks carried out by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian civilian targets and infrastructure, which are unjustified and in serious violation of international law, the statement added.