Romania Destroys Marine Drone Spotted Near Black Sea Gas Project

The Romanian army scrambled two F-16s to destroy a marine drone spotted near a major offshore natural gas project in the Black Sea, the nation’s defense minister has said, in the most recent drone incursion into the country’s exclusive economic zone.Minister of National Defense Radu Miruta said in an Aug. 20 Facebook post that the marine drone was destroyed after being spotted by the Romanian coast guard in the area of the Neptun Deep platform, 80 miles east of the port city of Constanta.“Following analyses carried out, and in coordination with the President of Romania, in order to protect the lives of the several hundred people who were working on the platform and to secure the critical infrastructure, the decision to destroy the drone was made,” said Miruta, who also serves as deputy prime minister.In a follow-up post, Miruta said that one of the F-16s hit the drone, which was then completely destroyed by a Romanian naval ship that arrived at the location.Miruta confirmed that the drone contained explosives.The minister did not state the drone’s origin but said he had received confirmation from Kyiv that it was not Ukrainian.Romanian President Nicusor Dan blamed Russia.“I strongly condemn the intensification of these types of irresponsible incidents from the Russian Federation,” Dan wrote in an Aug. 20 post on Facebook.“We remain vigilant with NATO allies to defend ourselves and repel such challenges.”Moscow made no immediate public comment on the ​incident, but has consistently denied that its drones stray into NATO territory.In relation to previous incidents where Russian craft are suspected of having entered Romanian territory, Moscow has said that Bucharest has not provided evidence that the drones were of Russian origin.Recent IncidentsWhen it comes online in 2027, Neptun Deep will make Romania, a NATO member state, the European Union’s largest gas producer.This is the latest such incident of a drone straying into Romania’s waters near the gas project.On Aug. 11, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said it destroyed in controlled explosions two Gerbera unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that were floating in the Black Sea near Neptun Deep.Romania shares a 382-mile land border with Ukraine, and, in the four years since the war began, has seen drones breach its airspace, as well ​as mines in the Black Sea.In July, Romania said its F-16 jets had shot down a suspected Russian UAV after it breached NATO airspace, the third such incursion over three days.Moscow denied violating Romanian airspace.Russia and Ukraine have been increasing drone assaults on each other, with eastern flank NATO member states seeing UAVs from both sides straying unintentionally into their territories.On Aug. 8, Bulgarian officials said that a UAV, likely a decoy Maya drone, exploded ​near the village of Kardam close to the border. There were no casualties or damage.Bulgarian officials said this type of drone is used by Ukrainian forces and that they believed the incursion was unintentional.‘Escalating Campaign of Threats’European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in an Aug. 20 post on X that the latest incident was “an escalating campaign of threats,” calling it “hybrid warfare.”Moscow has consistently denied having any intentions to attack NATO allies.In February, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was not interested in launching a military assault on Europe but would retaliate if European forces attacked Russia.“And if Europe were to carry out its threats to prepare for war against us and launch an attack on the Russian Federation, [President Vladimir Putin] said that this would not be a special military operation on our part, but a full-scale military response using all available military means, in accordance with the relevant doctrinal documents,” Lavrov said at the time.