Romania destroys two drones drifting near its gas project in Black Sea – video

Romanian forces destroyed two Gerbera-type drones on 11 August that were drifting in Romania's exclusive economic zone in Black Sea near the Neptun Deep offshore gas project.

Source: Radu Miruță, Romania's acting defence minister, on Facebook, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Bomb disposal experts destroyed the two drones in the exclusive economic zone, about 90 nautical miles, or more than 166 kilometres, east of the city of Constanța, near the Neptun Deep gas project.

The drones were spotted by one of the ships carrying out work in the area of the Neptun Deep platform. A coastguard vessel with soldiers on board headed to the area.

Romania's Ministry of Defence contacted the Ukrainian side about the incident.

Quote: "Two drifting UAVs and several other pieces were found. The Ministry of National Defence contacted our Ukrainian partners, who confirmed that these systems did not belong to them."

More details: To ensure the safety of shipping and work being carried out around the platform, Romania decided to destroy the drones in a controlled detonation.

Gerbera-type drones are Russian-made UAVs and are usually used for reconnaissance or as decoy drones.

Background:

• On 26 July Romania deployed a fighter jet to down a drone violating its airspace for the third time in three days.
• The first combat use of aircraft over Romania to shoot down such a drone – subsequently confirmed to have been a Shahed-type UAV – took place on 24 July.
• This was preceded by numerous incidents in which Russian drones flew into Romanian airspace and crashed, primarily in border areas over the Danube during Russian attacks targeting Ukrainian ports.

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