Russian drones violate NATO airspace
The German Air Force is currently involved in securing NATO's south-eastern flank with four fighter jets. Now Russian drones are entering Romania's airspace and triggering an alarm launch of the Eurofighters. The German crew identifies the drones, but does not shoot them down.
Russian drone attacks on Ukraine violated NATO airspace over Romania on Thursday night and triggered alarm launches by German Eurofighters. Russian aircraft were identified by the German crews, including by visual contact, without NATO issuing an order to shoot them down. During the wave of attacks on targets in Ukraine, up to 70 Russian drones of the type Shahed 136 were registered, one of which exploded over Romanian airspace according to preliminary findings.
According to this information, the attack was noticed from 9.42 p.m. German time and was tracked by a multinational command post for the command and control of NATO air forces ("Combined Air Operations Center"). Accordingly, the order to launch an alert ("Alpha Scramble") was given at 22:02 and the armed fighter aircraft were in the air at 22:11. The incident is considered significant.
According to the Ukrainian air force, 41 of 42 Russian combat drones were shot down during the night, most of them over the Odessa region bordering Romania. The Romanian Ministry of Defence reported a bomb crater 1.5 meters deep in the Danube delta near the Romanian village of Grindu, 6.5 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. It was described as "possible" that it was a Russian drone.
The air force is currently involved in securing NATO's south-eastern flank with four fighter aircraft and armed protection flights from the Romanian military airfield Mihail Kogalniceanu near Constanta. On the Romanian side of the border with Ukraine, there were several incidents in which airspace was violated. They were all linked to Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports on the Danube. So far, however, an analysis described as very precise has shown that these cases were not intentional on the part of Russia.
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The Russian drones, alleged to be involved in attacks on Ukraine, intruded into NATO's airspace over Romania, prompting NATO forces to scramble Eurofighters. Despite identification of the drones, NATO did not give the order to engage them, possibly due to avoiding further escalation. The incident highlighted the heightened tension in the region, with Romania's airspace becoming a potential battleground.
Source: www.ntv.de
