According to TASS, the Russian Embassy in Bucharest said that the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Russian Ambassador to Romania Vladimir Lipaev to protest the Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) encroaching on Romanian airspace, and announced the decision to deport 1 employee of the Russian Embassy.
A statement from the Russian Embassy said that Mr. Lipaev resolutely denied the unfounded accusations made by Romania. At the same time, he said that this is a move to prevent attacks by Russian armed forces on Ukrainian port infrastructure on the Danube and Black Sea. Russia informed that these facilities are being used by NATO to transport weapons and military equipment to Ukraine through Romanian territory.
The Russian Embassy also affirmed that no evidence was presented to prove that the UAVs belonged to Russia. In addition, questions related to the technical parameters and flight paths of these devices were also not answered by Romania.
Mr. Lipaev emphasized that Russia has never used combat UAVs against targets on Romanian territory and all accusations in this direction are completely unfounded.
The Russian Ambassador warned that Romania should not continue to escalate tensions with Russia or allow air defense forces to conduct cross-border operations, because this would mean that Romania would directly participate in military operations on Ukrainian territory.
Regarding the decision to deport 1 Embassy staff member, Russia declared this was an unfounded move and affirmed that there would be corresponding retaliatory measures.
Previously, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned Russian Ambassador Vladimir Lipaev to protest the continuous violation of the country's airspace on July 24-26.
During this time, the Romanian army announced that it had shot down 3 UAVs entering the country's territory without permission.
