A drone crashed into a residential building in Romania near the Ukrainian border, causing a fire on the 10th floor and injuring two people. NATO and the EU condemned the incident, while Putin questioned whether the drone was actually Russian.
On 30 May 2026, a drone struck a residential building in Galați, eastern Romania, near the Ukrainian border, igniting a fire on the building's 10th floor. Two people were injured, and about 70 residents were evacuated from the area.
Romania's Emergency Management Agency reported that the drone's warhead detonated on impact with the building, causing the fire. Authorities later brought the blaze under control. The injured sustained abrasions and were taken to a local hospital.
The Romanian Ministry of Defense said the military launched F-16 fighter jets to intercept the drone immediately after detection but had only four minutes from target acquisition to collision. It added the Romanian military faces limitations in response because it cannot shoot down drones by entering Ukrainian airspace, emphasizing that Ukraine is at war, but Romania is not.
Meanwhile, NATO and the European Union strongly condemned the incident, describing Russia's reckless behavior as a threat to everyone. They reaffirmed NATO's readiness to defend every inch of allied territory and called the event the most serious incident affecting Romanian soil since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. The EU convened an emergency meeting of its National Security Council.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters he had just learned of the incident and questioned whether the drone was indeed Russian. He proposed sending the drone wreckage back to Russia for an impartial investigation.
Previously, drones from the Russia-Ukraine conflict have crossed into Romanian territory several times, but this is the first incident in which Romanian civilians have been injured in such a manner.
Source: BBC