Romania, a member of NATO, has alerted its western allies about a Russian attack drone that fell within its borders during an assault on an adjacent area of Ukraine. A high-ranking officer from Kyiv believes Russian attacks will majorly diminish within the upcoming six weeks.
Ukrainian military forces claim to have intercepted 25 out of 38 bomb-carrying drones launched by Russian troops upon Ukrainian cities and crucial infrastructure earlier in the week, marking the second consecutive night of attacks primarily directed towards Odesa and other southern areas of the country.
Kyiv reported that three drones invaded Romania’s air space, a nation that borders Ukraine and Moldova around Ukrainian Danube river ports near the Black Sea. These areas are increasingly targeted by Russia in an effort to disrupt the shipping of goods such as food across the region.
Luminita Odobescu, the Romanian foreign minister, expressed her vehement condemnation of Russia’s repeated onslaughts on Ukraine’s civil facilities via a social media post. She mentioned that the incident of debris discovery in Romanian territory has been communicated to the allies for further action.
According to Romania’s defence ministry, two Finnish airplanes, serving as part of NATO’s Black Sea state patrol fleet, were mobilised amidst the early morning Russian drone raid in Ukraine. Ministry staff are currently investigating possible drone crashes that took place within Romanian borders during the week.
The ministry provided further information in relation to the investigations launched on July 24th, confirming the discovery of remnants of a Geran1/2-type drone, a Russian replication of the Shahed assault drones supplied by Iran, in one of the three identified potential crash sites. The discovered wreckage was located in a sparsely populated area showing no infrastructural presence. Romanian television channels aired images of the charred, smoking forest section where the drone allegedly fell.
Last year, incidents involving Russian attack drones crashing in Romania and a Russian missile traversing Poland’s airspace, both Nato members, were reported but not heavily emphasised by the countries or the alliance to avoid direct conflict with Russia. Recently, increased tensions were observed, with Ukrainian artillery and drone attacks causing injury to one individual and damage to numerous buildings and vehicles in Belgorod, a Russian border region, as claimed by its governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Reacting to this, Russia initiated a ground offensive into Kharkiv, a region in Ukraine, after evacuating civilians and limiting entry to the affected area in their attempt to establish a so-called buffer or security zone which, thus far, has been unsuccessful. Heavy skirmishes persist along the 1,000km front line in Eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have gradually advanced over a year, yet have only succeeded in acquiring the remnants of two minor cities, Bakhmut and Avdiivka, and some deserted or thinly populated villages.
According to Oleksandr Pivnenko, the commander of Ukraine’s national guard, the struggle is real but Russia’s offensive options are finite and they have sustained significant losses. He believes that, within the next six weeks, they would be unable to sustain multi-directional active assaults and would shift to a defensive stance by default. Until then, Ukraine needs to build and train its divisions.
In a separate development, a suspect has been apprehended by Ukrainian police in the city of Dnipro in connection with the murder of former nationalist deputy, Iryna Farion. The incident occurred last week in the western city of Lviv, and prosecutors have yet to disclose the motive behind the killing.