Romanian F-16 destroyed a naval drone

“The drone was laden with explosives and did not originate from Ukraine,” Miruta wrote on Facebook. The device was detected on the morning of 20 August, while drifting at a distance of several hundred metres from installations used for natural gas extraction. The decision was made to destroy the craft “in order to protect the health and lives of several hundred employees in the area and to safeguard critical infrastructure.” The unmanned vehicle was destroyed by the F-16 using its onboard cannon.

A team of combat engineers has been dispatched to the location, tasked with confirming that the threat has been neutralised.

The Romania Insider portal reported that last week, two Russian Gerbera-type unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down within Romania’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Black Sea, similarly in the vicinity of gas installations.

The Ukrainian side has been informed of the incident. Kyiv officially confirmed that the drone was not of Ukrainian origin.

Romanian airspace is regularly violated by drones. In contrast to the Baltic states, which frequently experience airspace violations by Ukrainian drones, Bucharest must primarily contend with drones of Russian origin. Moscow utilises these to attack Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea.