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NATO member Romania reported a possible violation of its airspace during an overnight Russian attack in neighboring Ukraine, saying it had not found debris on Romanian territory but would continue the search on Saturday.
The Romanian Army’s radar system detected “a possible unauthorized” breach of the country’s airspace after registering “groups of drones heading toward Ukrainian territory” near the border as Russia conducted “a new series of attacks on some targets in Ukraine,” the Romanian defense ministry said.
Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure on the banks of the River Danube, which runs along the border with Romania, have renewed concerns about potential escalation of the conflict in recent weeks. Romania said earlier this month that drone fragments were found on its territory, though it did not suggest this was an intentional attack. Still, the spillover and the proximity of the conflict to countries neighboring Ukraine has caused jitters for NATO, for which a mutual defense provision stipulates that an attack on one member can be considered an attack on all.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effect across the globe:
Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said police were deployed near the border where the potential breach was detected. The statement said residents there received warning alerts that were lifted later in the night. Romania began building some air-raid shelters near the Ukraine border after finding the suspected war debris this month.
A Russian drone attack in a town in Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region sparked a fire, prompting authorities to order a limited evacuation of residents near the site as they extinguish the flames, the Vinnytsia governor, Serhiy Borzov, said Saturday on Telegram.
Russian air defense systems shot down nine rockets launched by Ukraine over Russia’s Belgorod region overnight, according to the Russian defense ministry.
Russian authorities in Kursk have reported strikes and shelling nearly every day over the past week. A Ukrainian drone strike on a substation in the Russian region near the border on Friday briefly left 5,000 people without electricity. Power was restored Friday evening, according to the regional governor. Russian regions in the west of the country have sought to bolster air defenses as Ukrainian forces grow more brazen, The Washington Post reports.
But the Nordic nation has formally joined the military bloc, spurred into NATO by the threat of Russian aggression and doubling NATO’s land border with Russia. On the sidelines of U.N. meetings in New York this month, Tharoor spoke with Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen on life in NATO and the prospects of the war. Read the conversation here.
Loveday Morris and Amar Nadhir contributed to this report.
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