Romanian border residents fear fallout as frequency of drone alerts rises

ISACCEA, Romania (AP) — The text alerts blare first, then the blasts arrive.

For 48-year-old Robert Marian, who lives in Isaccea, a small Romanian border town in eastern Tulcea County along the Danube River with a crossing into Ukraine, the proximity of Russian drone strikes — just hundreds of meters across the river — has become a source of constant fear.

“There are alerts warning us that something is coming,” he told The Associated Press. “It happened two weeks ago, maybe three. I was asleep at midnight … One was quieter, but another was really loud. I got scared and ran out of the house.”

As Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on, drone incursions into Romania’s airspace have increased significantly. The blasts just across the Danube are a reminder of how close war is to NATO territory — at a time many fear Russian President Vladimir Putin might want to test the alliance’s resolve.

A Ukrainian border crossing with Romania was “deliberately damaged ... as well as export infrastructure,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sept. 1. Romanian customs announced the same day that activity at the Isaccea-Orlivka crossing had been temporarily suspended.

Alina Mihail, another Isaccea resident, says she feels sick when she hears the drone alerts and blasts ringing out across the border.

“I have so many nights where I don’t sleep anymore," she said. "I live in terror, me and my husband.”

Data from Romania’s Ministry of National Defense indicate a threefold increase in drone incursions so far this year compared with the whole of 2025 — 27 compared with 9 — and more than double the number of drones and drone debris found on the NATO member's territory, at 37 compared with 16.

Already this year, there have been 73 attacks near the border on Ukrainian territory, and some 56 military aircraft have been scrambled to “monitor and manage the situation.” Last year, there were 28 attacks near the border and 21 aircraft were raised. In the first year of the war, there was only one attack near the border.

In May, a drone injured a mother and child after crashing into an apartment block in the eastern town of Galati along the Danube River. A drone that entered Romania from neighboring Moldova was tracked through several counties last week before it reentered Moldova and crashed in a sunflower field.

Moscow has denied sending combat drones to Romanian territory.

The growing menace of drones crossing into Romania’s skies, many of which officials have blamed on Russia, prompted the NATO member to shoot down four drones this year, the first time since the war next door started.

NATO countries across Europe have accused Moscow of being behind a string of “hybrid war” actions against their countries, including drone incursions, sabotage, an attempted attack at a German airport and a Danish helicopter that was fired on with flares in the Baltic Sea.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Sept. 2 that “Russia has grown increasingly reckless” as Moscow continues its war.

“We have seen more drones and missiles crossing into our airspace, along our eastern flank, creating increased risk,” he said. “The dangers Russia poses are clear."

Last week, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also warned that he had received information from CIA Director Jim Ratcliffe indicating Europe should be prepared for intensified Russian provocations, including on the European Union’s eastern flank.

Romanian Defense Minister Radu Miruta told The Associated Press that Russia is considered a “primary, significant threat” to the eastern flank and to Romania in both the National Defense Strategy and NATO assessments.

“We are engaged in discussions regarding the capabilities needed to counter this common threat — facing the same risks as Poland and the Baltic states — and we are coordinating to ensure these capabilities are distributed in a way that allows for interconnection," he said.

In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO bolstered its presence on Europe’s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battle groups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

But last year, the U.S. reduced troop deployments to Eastern Europe, including Romania , after Washington shifted its military posture, which officials denied was a sign of lessened commitment to NATO.

Miruta said there are over 1,000 U.S. troops in Romania, which he said is higher than it was after the U.S. troop rotation last year. "We have a solid relationship,” he said. "The security dynamics along the eastern flank are highly fluid.”

Miruta said that discussions regarding NATO’s Article 5 — that an attack on any member can be met with a collective response — “can take various directions,” but said Romania currently has no information suggesting a ground invasion is imminent or likely.

“From this perspective, we can rest easy,” he said. He added that the ongoing threat posed to Romania is unique because of Russia’s frequent attacks on Ukraine’s Danube River ports, a short distance across the natural river border.

“Once the border is crossed, the distance involved is merely tens of meters, leaving very little reaction time,” he said. “In contrast, in the Nordic countries, targets are tens of kilometers away, providing a sufficiently comfortable window for various forms of intervention.”

Live fire across the border is visible and audible in some areas and has long put Romanian residents on edge .

“We see the drones coming, we see them heading toward those ports,” Miruta added. “Most stop there, bombarding port infrastructure, but we cannot know if any might cross over to the other side … If one does cross over, our communities … would be at risk.”

In response to the growing array of security threats, Romania and Poland acquired the MEROPS system , which fires short counter-drones to take down incoming stray drones. The defense ministry also announced last month that it had received its first 2.5 billion euros from the EU’s Security Action for Europe program, from the total amount of 16.6 billion allocated.

In June, the defense ministry also announced it had signed a $2 billion contract with an Israeli firm to acquire short and very-short-range air defense systems, “designed to protect against aerial threats, including drones and cruise missiles.”

Romanian President Nicusor Dan said at the Ankara summit that defense spending would reach up to 3.7% of GDP this year. He added that Romania joined NATO’s Drone Edge project, which aims to invest over $40 billion in “counter-drone capabilities” over the next five years.

Back in Isaccea, Mihail says she and her husband stay in the house when the text alerts warn of potential airspace breaches.

“We have no support, no one to help us," she said.

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McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, England.