A marine drone of the type used in the war in neighbouring Ukraine self-detonated on Friday near an oil terminal in Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta. The Romanian defence ministry stated that the explosion caused no casualties.
The incident prompted authorities to evacuate more than 1,000 people, and residents along the coast were warned to take cover. Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat described the measures as purely preventative, as two helicopters surveyed the area for further drones to mitigate the risk of additional self-detonations.
This event comes a week after a Russian aerial drone struck an apartment building in the eastern Danube port city of Galati, injuring two people. That incident marked the first time in the Russia-Ukraine war that a drone struck a densely populated area in a NATO state.
Romania, a NATO and European Union member sharing a 650-km border with Ukraine, has reported 28 incursions into its airspace by Russian drones since Moscow began attacking Ukrainian ports on the Danube. Ukrainian drone fragments have also landed on Romanian territory.
While the Russian embassy in Bucharest claimed the device in Constanta was Ukrainian, the European Commission president warned that the maritime drone attack was a direct consequence of the Russia-Ukraine war.