Illegal drones can be shot down
Drones that illegally enter Romanian airspace can be shot down
Bogdan Matei, 20.05.2025, 14:00
At the end of his term, the interim president of Romania Ilie Bolojan Monday signed into law 2 bills that the initiators and experts say are able to strengthen the country’s defence capacity and to deter threats.
One of the laws regulates the peacetime conduct of military missions and operations on Romanian territory, when a state of emergency, siege, mobilisation or war is not declared. The draft law stipulates that designated structures in the Romanian Army, depending on operational needs, may be transferred temporarily under various degrees of authority in relation to the command of foreign armed forces leading a military operation on the national territory.
In turn, the airspace control act stipulates which authorities and institutions are in charge of preventing and countering the access of aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems and other aerial vehicles to Romania’s airspace. This, experts also explain, will create a new framework of cooperation and coordination, which will lead to enhanced aviation safety and security.
The new bill became necessary after drones launched by the Russian army invading the neighbouring Ukraine began to fall on Romanian territory. The Russians primarily targeted Danube port infrastructure vital for the export of Ukrainian grains to international markets.
Since the war started, the locals in the Danube Delta have been woken up countless times in the middle of the night by RO-ALERT messages warning them about the possibility of objects falling on Romanian territory. Once, the sound of blasts in the Reni Seaport was heard as far as in Galaţi, a Romanian city some 20 km away. People first thought that it was military exercises carried out in the NATO training and shooting range in the neighbouring village of Smârdan.
At the time, Romanian diplomats firmly condemned “Russia’s repeated attacks against innocent people and civilian infrastructure, including grain silos in Ukrainian ports”, and concluded that, “with these blatant violations of international law, Russia continues to endanger food security and navigation in the Black Sea”. The Romanian presidency and government also accused Russia of seeking to undermine Ukrainian grain exports to global markets, which seriously destabilises world food security.
The river ports of Izmail and Reni are in southern Bessarabia, a Romanian territory annexed by Stalin’s Soviet Union in 1940, following an ultimatum, and taken over by independent Ukraine in 1991, as a successor state. (AMP)
