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Romania scrambled F-16 fighter jets to destroy a marine drone spotted a few hundred meters from the Black Sea gas project Neptun Deep on Thursday, Defense Minister Radu Miruță said, in an incident Romanian President Nicușor Dan blamed on Russia and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described as part of an "escalating campaign of threats" against the European Union.
"This morning, we were informed by the Coast Guard of the presence of a naval drone a few hundred meters from the works being carried out for gas extraction at the Neptun Deep platform," Miruță wrote on Facebook.
The drone was spotted at 6:28 a.m. local time by a commercial vessel, hundreds of meters from the offshore gas project and 80 nautical miles east of the Black Sea city of Constanța, according to a Defense Ministry press release.
Miruță said a command cell was established at the Defense Ministry and that NATO-level coordination was transferred to the Romanian military.
"Following the analyses carried out and in coordination with the President of Romania, a decision was made to destroy the drone in order to protect the lives of the several hundred people working on the platform and secure critical infrastructure," Miruță said.
Two Romanian F-16 fighter jets were scrambled, and one of them destroyed the drone.
Miruță said the destroyed drone was "loaded with explosives" and did not originate from Ukraine.
"Through the direct communication channel recently established with the Ukrainian side, we received official confirmation that it was not of Ukrainian origin," he said.
Miruță did not state the drone's origin directly.
Romanian President Dan blamed Russia for the incident.
"I strongly condemn the intensification of these types of irresponsible incidents on the part of the Russian Federation," he wrote in a Facebook statement.
"We remain vigilant alongside NATO allies to defend ourselves and repel such challenges," he added.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen criticized what she called an "escalating campaign of threats" against the EU, without directly naming Russia as the aggressor.
"Today, Romania destroyed a naval drone carrying explosives near its Neptun Deep platform in the Black Sea," von der Leyen wrote on X.
"An escalating campaign of threats is underway, unsettling our citizens and seeking to divide our Union. This is hybrid warfare," she added.
"The founding mission of our Union is to preserve peace. Today, that also means having the capacity to deter provocation and aggression," she wrote, adding, "Our Readiness 2030 agenda is mobilizing up to €800 billion. With the European Drone Defense Initiative and the Eastern Flank Watch, we are scaling up production in Europe to deliver capabilities Member States need. So we can respond to emerging threats with speed, unity and resolve."
Thursday's incident follows a similar episode earlier this month, when army divers destroyed two Gerbera-type drones drifting in Romania's exclusive economic zone near the same offshore gas project.
NATO-member Romania shares a 614-kilometer (382-mile) land border with Ukraine and has seen Russian drones breach its airspace over the past four years, along with mines floating in the Black Sea across key trade and energy routes.
NATO member states Romania, Bulgaria and Türkiye, which share the Black Sea with Georgia, Russia and Ukraine, have neutralized more than 150 mines drifting across trade lanes.
The three countries agreed in July to expand a joint task force that clears mines floating in the Black Sea to include missions protecting critical infrastructure.
NATO has shot down four aerial drones in Romania in recent weeks, with the most recent incident occurring last weekend. Separately, Romania reported an aerial drone crash Thursday following Russian strikes on Ukraine, with the drone falling in an unpopulated area four kilometers (2.5 miles) northeast of the village of Grindu in eastern Romania, close to the border, with no casualties reported.
Neptun Deep is jointly owned by OMV Petrom and state gas producer Romgaz. The project is expected to make Romania the European Union's largest gas producer when it comes onstream in 2027, with hundreds of people currently working at the platform, according to the Romanian government.
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