NATO warplanes were scrambled today after a suspected Russian drone crashed following an encroachment of Romanian airspace. 

Footage showed a dramatic explosion believed to be at a port on the Ukrainian side of the River Danube which forms the frontier with Romania.

But reports in Bucharest said the same wave of attacks that a Putin drone had crashed  near Tulcea county on the Romanian side of the border.

The Russian incursion triggered the response by NATO fighters, and an air raid warning to residents close to the Danube in Romania.

The Romanian defence ministry said: “At 1:35 a.m., two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force, part of the Air Police Combat Service, took off from the 86th Air Base in Borcea to monitor the air situation. 

“The aircraft returned to base around 3:48 a.m.”

NATO structures were kept fully abreast of the suspected illegal incursion by Russia, said Romanian officials.

“The Ministry of National Defence sends a firm message of condemnation of these attacks carried out by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian civilian objects and infrastructure elements, which are unjustified and in serious contradiction with the norms of international law,” said a Romanian statement.

Earlier this week, NATO warplanes were scrambled in Poland amid a wave of Russian missile and drone strikes in western Ukraine close to the alliance’s eastern flank.

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