Zelenskyy: Russian drone operated in Romanian airspace for 50 minutes; Romania scrambles F-16s, Poland shuts Lublin airport amid UAV threat
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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said a Russian unmanned aerial vehicle penetrated roughly 10 kilometres into Romania and remained in NATO airspace for about 50 minutes.
Romania’s defence ministry reported scrambling two F-16s after detecting a drone during Russian strikes on targets in Ukraine’s Danube region near the border. Local authorities issued RO-Alert warnings in Tulcea County.
Romania’s Ministry of National Defence (MApN) said two F-16s from Fetești Air Base took off at 18:05 local time on Saturday, following reports of aerial activity linked to Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure along the Danube. The ministry said the jets detected a drone inside Romanian airspace and tracked it until it disappeared from radar about 20 kilometres south-west of Chilia Veche. The ministry added that the drone did not fly over populated areas and did not pose an immediate danger to civilians.
Emergency alerts were sent to residents in the north of Tulcea County advising them to seek shelter due to the possibility of falling objects from the air. Romanian media reported that the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations issued an initial RO-Alert shortly after the jets launched, with updates later in the evening as monitoring continued.
Zelenskyy, in a statement posted on social media, said:
“Today Romania scrambled combat aviation because of a Russian drone in its airspace… the drone penetrated about 10 kilometres into Romanian territory and operated in NATO airspace for about 50 minutes.”
He also said preliminary information indicated that Russia used Belarusian airspace to route drones into Ukrainian airspace towards Volyn.
In Poland, authorities conducted a preventive air operation and temporarily closed Lublin airport due to the threat posed by Russian drone activity in neighbouring Ukraine. Polish and allied aircraft were deployed and ground-based air defences placed on heightened readiness. Officials said the operation lasted about two hours and reported no violation of Polish airspace on Saturday. The measures followed an earlier incident this week in which Polish air defences, with NATO support, downed Russian drones that had entered Poland.
Saturday’s incident is the latest in a series of cross-border risks arising from Russia’s drone campaign against Ukrainian infrastructure near the Danube. Since 2023, fragments of drones launched at Ukrainian ports have repeatedly been found on Romanian soil, prompting tightened alerting procedures and joint surveillance with NATO partners. Earlier this year, Romania passed legislation enabling the armed forces to shoot down unauthorised drones breaching national airspace in peacetime, subject to risk assessment; implementing rules are pending.
The Romanian defence ministry stressed that the tracked drone’s route avoided inhabited areas, and that continuous radar monitoring remained in place after the object dropped from radar. Local broadcasters reported multiple RO-Alert messages for northern Tulcea, consistent with earlier safety protocols used when debris risks were assessed during previous cross-border drone attacks.
Zelenskyy used the episode to renew calls for deeper air-defence coordination with NATO members, arguing that routes and endurance profiles of Russian drones are planned in advance and that partners should act “preventively”. In recent days he has urged the creation of a joint European “air shield” and said Ukraine is prepared to share data relating to incursions into allied airspace.
Context of Saturday’s alerts includes ongoing Russian-Belarusian “Zapad-2025” exercises and the 9–10 September drone incursions into Poland, which Warsaw and allies condemned as a serious violation. NATO has said it will reinforce deterrence and defence along the eastern flank in light of recent airspace incidents.
