Romania says F-16 shot down drone over the country’s airspace

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A Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down a drone over Romania on Friday.

Romanian President Nicușor Dan said the incident occurred at around 11 am and that an investigation has since been launched.

“The area was uninhabited, so the pilot was able to fire without any risk,” he wrote in a post on X.

Providing further details on the incident, Romania’s Ministry of Defence said a jet attached to the 86th air base at Fetești in eastern Romania engaged the drone with an air-to-air missile while carrying out an air policing mission.

The drone was intercepted over an “unpopulated area” around Padina, northeast of the capital, Bucharest, per the ministry.

The unmanned aerial vehicle had been picked up by radars at around 9:40 a.m on Friday morning over the Black Sea, it said. It then moved west towards the port town of Sulina and towards the city of Buzău, the ministry added in a statement.

Two Italian air force Eurofighter Typhoon jets operating out of the Mihail Kogălniceanu air base were scrambled along with two Romanian air force F-16s to monitor the situation, according to the defence ministry.

The incident follows a series of drone incursions into Romania.

In May, a Russian drone carrying explosives crashed in the city of Galați, causing a fire on the roof of a residential apartment block and injuring two people.

The following month, a Ukrainian sea drone exploded in the Romanian port Constanta.

In this photo taken from video provided by OBSERVATOR ANTENA 1, an explosion of sea drone is seen in Constanta port, Romania, Friday, June 5, 2026.

The Ukrainian navy said at the time that the drone had veered off course due to Russian electronic warfare interference.

The incidents prompted concern among EU officials, with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission, calling them “a direct consequence of Russia’s war against Ukraine.”