War in Ukraine. missile near Romanian airspace

It was just an alert. But he remembers that the war in Ukraine may one day accidentally spread to the neighboring country. After the downed drone in Croatia in April and the accidental firing of Ukrainian missiles that killed two people in Poland in November, the new incident has put NATO to the test. On Friday, a Russian cruise missile fired from a ship in the Black Sea (Ukrainian authorities said there were two missiles without confirming this information) flew through Moldovan airspace before resuming its course towards Ukraine. He approached Romania at a distance of 35 kilometers from the border.

The shot did not enter the control zone of the MAMBA air defense system deployed by the French army near Constanta on Romania’s east coast. So Paris staff downplayed the threat on Friday afternoon. But NATO, which has strengthened its presence in the country since the beginning of the Ukrainian war, sounded the alarm. ” Romanian authorities followed all standard procedures from the moment the target was identified to the full clarification of the situation said the Ministry of Defense of Romania. “ At 10:38 a.m., two Romanian Air Force MiG-21 LanceRs assigned to the NATO-led air policing mission, which were conducting exercises at the time, were diverted to northern Romania to increase response capabilities. “, the authorities of Bucharest noted. The situation does not require additional measures. According to the staff’s analysis, the Russian shots were aimed at the infrastructure of Ukraine.

In Chisinau, the Moldovan government has decided to summon the Russian ambassador. complaint against the violation of its airspace. The rocket flew over Mokra area in the Transnistrian region, then Kozaut settlement in the Soroka region, in the direction of Ukraine “, said the Ministry of Defense. It is not the first time that this small border state, which is neither a member of NATO nor the European Union, even if it acquires the status of a candidate, suffers from the ricochets of war. A similar incident took place in October, and fragments of a rocket were found in the area.

The worst has been avoided so far. There is no automatic procedure in case of aggression by Moldova. However, Allied headquarters are closely monitoring the situation in this fragile state. At the beginning of the conflict, Westerners feared that Russia would seek to destabilize Moldova by taking advantage of the presence of pro-Russian militias in the Transnistrian region. Since then, the war has moved further east. But Moscow can always be tempted by the destabilization of the region. Amidst the crisis, the pro-Western government resigned on Friday after months of political upheaval.