A Russian drone entered Romanian airspace and crashed into an apartment block early Friday, causing a fire and minor injuries to two people, Romania’s defense ministry said in a statement.
The drone hit the roof of a building in the Stirex-Mazepa neighborhood in the municipality of Galați, near the border with Ukraine, at around 1 a.m. Brussels time, according to local media reports.
The defense ministry said the drone crossed the border from Ukraine, where Russia was carrying out attacks on civilian and infrastructure targets. Two F-16 aircraft were scrambled and the pilots were “authorized to engage targets throughout the alert,” its statement said.
The ministry described the situation as “dynamic.”
Last month, two British aircraft were scrambled after Russian drones approached Romanian airspace from Ukraine, though they didn’t shoot because the drones did not breach the border. Debris from the drones fell on a farm in the Romanian town of Văcăreni.