The villagers were surprised. On the morning of November 25, a Russian drone crashed in a field in the village of Puesti, 50 kilometers (30 mi) from Romania’s border with Moldova.
The terrified farm owner told local media that he was at home with his family when he heard a very loud bang. A drone had collided with a tree. Several villagers later gave graphic descriptions to Romanian media, with some saying they feared war and would now “pack their bags and leave.”
Around the same time, in Romania’s northeastern neighbor Moldova, a Russian drone fell on the roof of a farm building in the village of Cuhuresti de Jos, 15 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The residents there too were scared. “You wake up in the morning and don’t know what to do,” an elderly villager told Moldovan TV station Journal TV.
A sense of fear and panic is widespread among residents of both villages – as is the case among the general population in Moldova and Romania. On Tuesday, both countries experienced the most serious airspace violation by Russia since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine. During the widespread Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine on Tuesday morning, a total of six Russian drones entered Moldovan airspace, including the one that crashed in Cuhuresti de Jos.
Meanwhile, in Romania, the drone that crashed in Puesti apparently flew in national airspace for several hours, flying a large loop in the east of the country. Residents in several counties reported receiving drone warnings on their mobile phones.
Was the airspace violation intentional?
Moldova, a nation that is virtually defenseless militarily, lacks any form of air defense against drones.
The situation was different in NATO member Romania, where four of the defense alliance’s combat aircraft took off, including two with German pilots. However, they apparently repeatedly lost sight of the drone and were reluctant to shoot it down.
Both the drones that crashed were apparently not loaded with explosives. In Russian attacks on Ukraine, such flying objects are mostly used to deceive air defenses and can also be used for reconnaissance. The flight paths of the drones that entered Moldovan and Romanian airspace suggest that Russia intentionally delivered flying objects to both countries.
They probably flew from Crimea, across the Black Sea, to the Danube Delta and then to the southern and central parts of Moldova and eastern Romania. However, unlike the Polish government’s response to the drone incident in Poland in early September 2025, Moldovan and Romanian authorities have not yet accused Russia of intentionally directing drones into either country.
Airspace was violated dozens of times
The Russian ambassador to Moldova was summoned. But the government in Romania has not yet responded to Moscow. The Russian ambassador in Bucharest has been summoned to the Foreign Ministry several times for similar airspace violations, most recently in mid-November, when he was shown parts of a Russian drone that had crashed on Romanian territory.
Russia has violated Moldova and Romania’s airspace dozens of times in recent years, using both drones and missiles. There have been several explosions in Romania also.
Most recently, on November 4, a Russian drone exploded over Romanian territory near the border triangle with Moldova and Ukraine and only ten kilometers from the city of Galați on the Danube.
Just last week, residents of the village of Plauru in the northern Danube delta were evacuated to safety after a Russian drone set fire to a liquid gas tanker in the port city of Izmail on the Ukrainian bank of the Danube, threatening to trigger a massive explosion. The Romanian bank of the Danube, where the village of Plauru is located, is only about 250 meters from the port of Izmail.
What needs to be done to generate a decisive response?
For Moldova and Romania, Russia’s war in Ukraine is increasingly becoming a part of everyday life. Many observers, particularly in NATO-member Romania, are now asking what more needs to be done before decisive action is taken by the current government and NATO forces on Romanian soil. After all, the largest NATO air base in Southeast Europe is located near the Black Sea port city of Constanta.
“It is beyond comprehension,” commented a presenter on the Digi24 television channel: “Laws were made to shoot down drones, orders were given, troops came freely, and yet this drone was not shot down.” Romanian Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu, a staunch supporter of Ukraine and generally not one to shy away from, struggled to make his point to the press. “We are not at war,” he said, “we cannot fire without thinking about the consequences.”
‘A haven for Russian drones’
In February 2025, the Romanian Parliament voted in favor of a change to the law that allows shooting down drones in the country’s airspace – something that was not previously possible. This law came into force in May 2025. The fact that no Russian drones have been shot down since then is not seen as a problem by Romanian President Nicosor Dan.
On Wednesday, he gave a surprisingly cordial statement to Romanian media: “All these drones that sometimes enter our territory are accidental.” He said that such incidents happen in many places in Europe. “So these are technical problems.” He did not specify what he meant by “technical problems.”
Former Romanian President Traian Băsescu, known for his self-confident approach towards Moscow during his tenure from 2004 to 2014, took a completely different approach. Speaking on the Digi24 channel, he said: “A country that respects itself does not allow its airspace to become a promenade for Russian drones.”
This article was originally published in German.