Romania says drone shot down after breaching airspace

Romania’s defense ministry says a Spanish F-18 fighter jet pilot on a NATO air policing mission to Romania shot down a drone illegally breaching its national airspace, the fourth unmanned aircraft the country has shot down this year.

The NATO state shares a 614-kilometer (382-mile) land border with Ukraine and has seen Russian drones repeatedly breach its airspace over the last four years, as well as mines floating in the Black Sea across key trade and energy routes.

The ministry does not specify the origin of the drone, but says its radars detected it entering the country from neighbouring Moldova, some 24 kilometers (15 miles) north of the southeastern Romanian city of Galati.

The ministry says fragments appear to have fallen in an uninhabited area between two villages.

Earlier this year, a Russian drone crashed into an apartment block in the city of Galati during an overnight attack on neighboring Ukraine, injuring two people.