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Ukraine claimed that at least one Russian attack drone fired overnight on one of its Danube delta ports had crashed across the river on to the territory of Nato-member Romania, marking a potentially serious escalation of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
The alleged incident occurred as Russian forces pounded Ukraine’s ports on the Danube river bordering Romania for a second night in a row, the latest strikes in a campaign aimed at choking Kyiv’s ability to export grain to global markets.
Romania’s defence ministry “categorically denied” the reports on Monday. Two Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times that it was not the first time such an incident had occurred but declined to explain why Bucharest would deny it.
The development upped the ante hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sochi for talks about restarting a deal brokered by the UN and Ankara that permitted Ukrainian grain exports via its Black Sea ports.
In a Facebook post that included a photograph of the alleged explosion in Romania, Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s foreign ministry, described the incident as “another confirmation that Russian missile terror poses a huge threat not only to the security of Ukraine, but also to the security of neighbouring countries, including Nato member states”.
Similar incidents have threatened to spread the war to Nato countries. Missile fragments from what were suspected to be Russian air strikes landed in Poland last November. Ukraine has also claimed that Russia on a few occasions fired cruise missiles over Moldovan airspace or along the border to evade the country’s air defences.
In a statement on its website, Romania’s defence ministry said that “at no time did the means of attack . . . generate direct military threats to Romania’s national territory or territorial waters”, adding that Bucharest has been monitoring events since the latest round of attacks began on Saturday.
Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, urged a strong response to the “terrorist attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure, the aim of which is to create a food crisis in the world [and to] threaten the inhabitants of other countries”.
He said additional air defence systems and offensive weaponry such as longer-range missiles from western allies were “needed to completely oust Russian forces from Ukrainian territory”.
Oleg Kiper, governor of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region on the Black Sea’s north-western corner, said 17 attack drones were intercepted early on Monday in the Izmail region “but, unfortunately, there are also hits” on warehouses and production buildings, agricultural machinery and equipment of industrial enterprises.
It was not immediately clear how the incident would affect Putin’s talks with Erdoğan on restarting the Black Sea grain agreement brokered in July 2022. Russia withdrew from the initiative two months ago, citing unmet guarantees that its fertiliser exports would reach global markets.
Kyiv has since tested Moscow’s blockade of its ports by unilaterally launching a maritime corridor through which four cargo vessels have passed.
Sandu-Valentin Mateiu, a Romanian defence analyst and former naval commander and intelligence officer, said that it was entirely plausible that one drone would hit Romania.
“Romania has tried to avoid an escalation as long as a real threat does not appear,” Mateiu said. “This is the guiding line. We will be cautious, extremely diplomatic — until the threat on our territory or waters becomes real.”
He said it was extremely unlikely the strike on Romania, if it happened, was intentional.
“Russia knows Nato will defend every last inch of territory. Romania will not look for trouble to activate [Nato’s joint defence clause] as long as it does not translate into a real threat to our people.
“Russia will not dare to attack the bridge in Giurgiulești either,” he said, referring to a key rail and road link across the Danube via the Moldovan border town of Giurgiulești, which is used to export Ukrainian grain via Romania.
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