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Romania scrambled fighter jets on Saturday after a Russian drone entered its airspace, in the latest act of provocation from Moscow.
The country’s defence minister, Ionut Mosteanu, said that F-16 pilots came close to taking down the drone as it was flying very low before it left national airspace toward Ukraine.
Authorities warned citizens in the southeastern county of Tulcea near the Danube and its Ukrainian border to take cover, the defence ministry said in a statement.
It came just days after the Polish military shot down a large number of Russian drones that had entered its airspace, a move which prompted prime minister Donald Tusk to warn that the country is the closest to armed conflict since World War Two.
There were 19 intrusions into Polish airspace last Tuesday, with many drones entering from Belarus, Mr Tusk said in parliament, adding that three drones were confirmed to have been shot down, with the fourth being likely.
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The ruins of a building struck by a Russian drone in Poland(Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS)
Is Romania part of Nato?
Romania is a member of both Nato and the European Union and shares a 650km border with Ukraine.
It joined Nato in March 2004 along with six other countries as part of the largest-ever expansion of the alliance, which included Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X that data showed the drone that entered Romania breached about 10km into Romanian territory and operated in Nato airspace for around 50 minutes.
"It is an obvious expansion of the war by Russia and this is exactly how they act," he said. "Sanctions against Russia are needed. Tariffs against Russian trade are needed. Collective defense is needed."
Romanian MPs approved a law earlier this year enabling the army to shoot down drones illegally breaching Romanian airspace during peacetime, based on threat levels and risks to human life and property, but the bill does not yet have all enforcement rules approved.
Is Poland part of Nato?
Nato is a political and military alliance of North American and European countries forged in the aftermath of the Second World War in the hope of avoiding future bloodshed and hostilities between nations through the realisation of three specific goals: deterring Soviet expansionism, preventing the revival of militant nationalism and encouraging European political integration.
Poland is a member of Nato and has been since 1999. It invests more than 4 per cent of of its GDP on defence, more than any other member of the alliance.
Nato has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and its current secretary general is Mark Rutte.
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Soldiers patrol the street in Poland after a drone struck a residential building(Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS)
Its 31 member states are obliged by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty of 4 April 1949 to come to the aid of any fellow signatory in the event that they should come under attack from a foreign power.
In its own words: “Nato is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations.”
How was Nato formed?
Originally born of the Treaty of Dunkirk signed by Britain and France on 4 March 1947, Nato was created to contain any future military threat from a revived Germany or the USSR at a time when the Marshall Plan was attempting to bring economic deliverance to a continent still in recovery from a war that had killed 36.5 million people.
Nato was soon expanded to include Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and then the US, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
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A firefighter runs at the site of a residential area hit during Russian drone and missile strikes in Zhytomyr(via REUTERS)
Holding firm throughout the Cold War and evolving its approach in response to such tense diplomatic episodes as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War and the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan, the alliance was given a new lease of life with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
It gradually added former Soviet satellites states to its ranks: first the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in 1999 and then Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004.
The most recent additions to the alliance were North Macedonia in 2020 and Finland in 2023.
Could Ukraine join Nato?
Mr Putin insists - without any basis - that Russia and Ukraine are really one nation. Through his act of aggression against Ukraine, he appears to be seeking to reintegrate the country into his vision of a greater Russia, just as he annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
For its part, Ukraine wants the defensive protection of the alliance as part of its bid for recognition as a free western democracy, shielded from the malign influence of Moscow but US president Donald Trump has insisted Kyiv cannot be a member.
Without Ukraine being part of Nato, the alliance’s member states, including Britain and the US, are not obliged to commit troops or come to its aid militarily, which is why those states and the other major European powers are reluctant to allow Kyiv into their company for now, as to do so would risk a much more widespread war in Europe.
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Explosions are seen in the night sky as Ukrainian servicemen fire towards drones during a Russian drone strike(REUTERS)
A number of British troops are, however, currently stationed in fellow signatory states Estonia and Poland as part of the organisation’s peacekeeping duties and the UK has carried out extensive military training with the Ukrainian armed forces since 2015 and has pledged to continue supplying Ukraine with weapons to counter Russian attacks during the present conflict.
Nato’s official position is that membership is open to “any other European state in a position to further the principles of the treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area”.
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The present concern for the alliance is that, if Russia succeeds in conquering Ukraine, it could continue its westward expansion and perhaps seize other outliers like Georgia and, indeed, set a precedent for other global superpowers to follow, perhaps emboldening China to take Taiwan, for instance.
At present, however, Moscow is a very long way from achieving its goal having been caught unprepared by the sheer ferocity of the fightback mounted by a united Ukraine – well supplied with military hardware by its international allies – rendering its war a drawn-out stalemate that is beginning to look like a monumental miscalculation on Mr Putin’s part that will achieve the direct opposite of his intentions.