Ukraine’s neighbor Romania has reported Russian drones entering its airspace just days after the incident in Poland, the BBC reports.
On the 13th of September, during Russia’s strikes on Ukraine, Romanian fighter jets were scrambled and detected the drones entering the country’s southern border.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the airspace violations could not be a coincidence and were a clear sign of Russia’s efforts to expand the war. Moscow has not commented on the incident.
Just days earlier, on the 10th of September, Russian drones entered Polish airspace, and three of them were shot down.
The Romanian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Russian drones were spotted when two F-16 fighter jets were monitoring the Romanian-Ukrainian border after a Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure.
The drones did not cross populated areas and did not pose an immediate threat.
The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, called the incident another unacceptable violation of the sovereignty of an EU member state. Poland has also reacted, and its Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on the X that preventive operations have begun in European airspace. Ground-based air defense systems are also on high alert.
The Russian Defense Ministry said after the drones entered Poland that it had no plans to attack targets on Polish territory. Moscow’s ally Belarus said the drones entered Polish airspace by accident after their navigation system malfunctioned.
The Czech Republic announced on the 14th of September that it would send a special mission helicopter unit to Poland. This is a response to Russia’s incursion into NATO airspace.
Reuters writes that in the meantime, Ukraine, in order to combat the endless drone raids, plans to reduce the quality of the mobile communications network during Russian attacks.
The mobile network is used for orientation, and such a step would reduce the ability to find targets.
The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Andriy Khnatov, indicated that this would not be jamming mobile communications, but rather reducing the quality, for example, by limiting 5G and 4G communication. This will be done so that Moscow’s modems, which are used to control the drones, will not be able to use the Ukrainian network.
The shutdown of broadband Internet allows you to limit the drones that transmit images and need a 4G network to operate.
US President Donald Trump has also joined the discussion, indicating that he is ready to introduce stricter sanctions against Russia, but only if all NATO countries stop buying Russian oil.
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