After drone incident: Romania to build bomb shelters near Ukraine

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
9 Sep 2023 09:11

The Romanian government instructed the defense ministry to conduct a study on the most at-risk areas and prioritize regions with high population.

A fireball lights the horizon on the Ukrainian shore of the Danube, seen from Chilia Veche in eastern Romania on the night of Tuesday, September 5, 2023. (AFP)

Romania's Defense Ministry will begin examining regions bordering Ukraine that might be at risk of being impacted by the ongoing military activities, and equip them with bomb shelters.

"Given the recent and numerous attacks on the Ukrainian ports of Reni and Izmail, as well as the response of Ukrainian air defense system ... the National Committee for Emergency Situations makes the following decision: the Ministry of National Defense is obligated to measure and define those areas of the Romanian territory which surround Reni and Izmail conflict zones where special security means must be set in order to defend the citizens," the Romanian National Committee for Emergency Situations said on Friday.

The priority should be for highly populated areas, the committee added.

Late Monday, Kiev alleged that Russian drones detonated in the NATO member's territory after air sirens went off in Odessa.

Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tilvar denied to the Financial Times reports of Russian UAVs or Ukrainian shells accidentally hitting the country's soil, but added that “no country that borders Ukraine could exclude entirely the possibility [of getting] hit by mistake.”

This was not the first instance that military hardware hit a neighboring NATO country since the war started in Ukraine.

In November 2022, two missiles fell in Poland, prompting Warsaw to call for an emergency National Security Council meeting. According to Kiev then, the missiles, which made their way to the village of Przewodów in the Lubelskie Voivodeship near the border with Ukraine, were fired by Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team launched a mass campaign following the incident in an attempt to call on NATO to join the fight against Russia and invoke the coalition's Article 5. However, following Western investigations, including Polish, it was concluded that the missiles were from Ukrainian air defense systems.