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Summary

The incident comes a week after a drone struck a residential building in this EU and NATO member state, injuring two people.

Romanian officials said a drone of the type used in the war in neighboring Ukraine self-detonated on Friday in the port of Constanta on the Black Sea near an oil terminal, without causing any injuries.

This explosion is the second major incident in a populated area in Romania in just one week, amid increasing risks of spillover from the war that began in 2022.

Romanian officials did not specify whether the drone was Ukrainian or Russian.

News website G4Media quoted Constanta County Governor Adrian Teodor Piciu as saying that Ukraine had informed Romania that the drone was one of a group of five, one of which exploded in Ukraine.

The Russian embassy in Romania said in a statement that the drones belonged to Kyiv.

Ukraine admits

Ukraine acknowledged that the naval drone that exploded early Friday in the Romanian port of Constanta on the Black Sea belonged to it, saying it "lost control" due to Russian electronic jamming.

The Ukrainian navy announced on Facebook that one of its drones "was jammed by the enemy's electronic warfare systems, lost control, and ended up near the Romanian coast."

The Romanian Defense Ministry earlier said the drone self-detonated at 10:30 a.m. local time (07:30 GMT), was not part of Romanian military equipment, and did not participate in recent drills in the Black Sea.

Deputy Interior Minister Raed Arafat said the port was evacuated, a warning was issued to residents on the Black Sea coast, and two helicopters were scouring the area for any other drones.

Arafat added, "We are not panicking; these measures are purely precautionary."

Danger on the coasts

Earlier this week, the Romanian navy detonated a Russian anti-landing mine that had drifted to the country's Black Sea shores.

Romanian President Nicolae Ciucă said on Facebook following the explosion news: "This is the second dangerous security incident this week on the Romanian coast."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that the Russian war in Ukraine is increasingly posing a direct threat to countries on Europe's eastern borders.

The drone exploded about 500 meters from an oil terminal.

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The port incident comes a week after a drone struck a residential building in this EU and NATO member state, injuring two people.

The Romanian Defense Ministry said in a statement: "The naval drone detected this morning, June 5, in the civilian port of Constanta self-detonated around 10:30 a.m. without causing any injuries."

Head of the Emergency Situations Department Raed Arafat explained during a press conference that the drone was spotted around 6 a.m. (03:00 GMT).

He added, "The area was cordoned off and the competent authorities secured the site," noting that two helicopters are flying over the area to check for other drones, while residents were asked to "avoid the coastal area within a 1-km radius and evacuate the entire coast" pending verification "that there is no risk of another explosion."

For his part, President Nicolae Ciucă said on X: "This is the second significant security incident this week on the Romanian coast," referring to a sea mine discovered on the beach.

He continued, "Such particularly dangerous situations are direct consequences of the war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine," a week after a drone struck a building in Galați, near the border with Ukraine, causing minor injuries to a 14-year-old boy and a 53-year-old woman.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte condemned Russia's "irresponsible" behavior, which poses a "risk to all of us."

Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned his country's responsibility for the drone incident, insisting that Moscow does not "threaten European countries."

Drones have violated Romanian airspace dozens of times since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in 2022, but this was the first time one struck a residential building.

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More about: Romania, naval drone, Black Sea, NATO, Constanta port