NATO has been forced to scramble its F-16 fighter jets after a Russian attack breached Romanian airspace.
The nation’s defence ministry said a drone had entered across the border after Vladimir Putin launched an onslaught on neighbouring Ukraine.
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The country scrambled two F-16 fighter jets late on Saturday to monitor the situation following the strikes, a defence ministry statement confirmed.
They “detected a drone in national airspace” and tracked it until it disappeared from the radar near the Romanian village of Chilia Veche.
Nato acted swiftly to the alert after the group vowed to defend “every inch” of allied land earlier this week.
It came after Kremlin drones invaded Polish airspace – forcing Warsaw to shoot them down and trigger Nato Article 4, just one below the threshold of war.
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Poland‘s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said 19 Russian drones sailed across the border amid an onslaught against western Ukraine, taking his country to the “closest to conflict since WW2”.
He said four were shot down by Nato fighter jets – understood to be from Poland, Italy, the Netherland the US – and officials later said seven had been found on the ground.
This is the first time since the outbreak of war that Nato has directly clashed with Russia, though jets have been scrambled many times without engaging.
Kremlin spokespeople have denied there is any evidence the drones were Russian, and even outrageously implied they had been launched by Kyiv.
Poland also claimed again on Saturday that it had deployed helicopters and aircraft to combat Russian drones close to the border.
The country’s military announced on X they were on their “highest level of alert” alongside allied aircraft.
Tusk later confirmed the alert had been lifted but cautioned: “We must remain vigilant”.
Speaking on the latest Russia and Nato altercations, Volodymyr Zelensky said it was “an obvious expansion of the war by Russia”.
He urged Nato: “Do not wait for dozens of shaheds [drones] and ballistic missiles before finally making decisions.”
Reacting to Russia’s continued aggression and threats towards Nato, US President Donald Trump vowed to “do major sanctions on Russia”.
He said on Truth Social he would punish Putin on the condition that all Nato countries agree to stop buying oil from the tyrant’s regime.
Promising he was steadfast in his commitment to end the war in Ukraine, Trump added: “I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when?”
And he also called on Nato to impose sanctions on China, emphasising that Xi Jinping was funding Putin’s war machine.
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