Romania became the latest Nato member state to report a drone incursion into its airspace , with Poland scrambling aircraft in response to fresh Russian drone strikes just over the border in Ukraine.
Romania’s defence ministry said on Saturday its airspace had been breached by a drone during a Russian attack on infrastructure in neighbouring Ukraine. Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets late on Saturday to monitor the situation after the strikes, the ministry said in statement.
The jets “detected a drone in national airspace” and tracked it until “it disappeared from the radar” near the Romanian village of Chilia Veche, it added.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia was deliberately expanding its drone operations and that the west needed to respond with tougher sanctions and closer defence cooperation. The latest drone incursions were “an obvious expansion of the war by Russia”, he said. “The Russian military knows exactly where their drones are headed and how long they can operate in the air.”
What was required in response were fresh sanctions against Russia and a collective defence system, Zelenskyy argued.
“Do not wait for dozens of ‘shaheds’ and ballistic missiles before finally making decisions,” he warned, referring to the Iranian-designed Shahed drones Russia is using.
In Washington, US president Donald Trump said he was ready to impose major sanctions on Russia – just as soon as all Nato nations did the same thing and stopped buying Russian oil.
Also Saturday, Poland said it and its Nato allies had deployed helicopters and aircraft when Russian drones struck Ukraine not far from its border.
Because of the drone threat, “Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, and ground-based air defence and radar reconnaissance systems have reached their highest level of alert,” the country’s military command posted in a statement on X.
Later on Saturday, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk announced that the high alert had been lifted, while cautioning: “We remain vigilant.”
Poland and its fellow Nato countries have been on their guard since Warsaw said nearly 20 Russian drones entered its airspace overnight Tuesday to Wednesday.
While Russia denies targeting Poland, several European countries including France, Germany and Sweden have stepped up their support for defending Polish airspace in response.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Saturday expressed concern at the Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace last week but sought to question whether Poland was deliberately targeted. “No doubt about it: the drones were intentionally launched. The question is whether the drones were targeted to go into Poland specifically,” he said. If it turned out to have been deliberate, “then obviously it will be … highly escalatory”, he told reporters in Washington.
On Friday, Poland rejected Donald Trump’s suggestion that the incursions could have been a mistake, a rare contradiction of the US president from one of Washington’s closest European allies.
On Saturday, Trump returned to the issue of sanctions against Russia, putting the ball back in the court of his Nato allies.
“I am ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all Nato nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all Nato nations stop buying oil from Russia,” he said in a post on social media.
Trump has repeatedly threatened sanctions against Russia without following through.
In Russia, an official reported that a Ukrainian drone had hit one of its largest oil refining complexes, 1,400km (870 miles) from the frontline in Ukraine.
The drone had sparked a fire and caused minor damage at the complex, which belongs to Russian oil company Bashneft, and lies on the outskirts of the central Russian city of Ufa.
A source in Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency claimed responsibility for the attack.
Since Moscow launched its full-scale military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has responded with attacks on Russian refineries in an attempt to curb the Kremlin’s ability to fund the conflict through its fossil fuel industry.
