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A Spanish F-18 fighter jet operating on a NATO air policing mission shot down a drone that entered Romanian airspace from Moldova early Sunday, Romania's Defense Ministry said, marking the fourth unmanned aircraft destroyed over the country this year.
The drone was detected at 4:44 a.m. about 24 kilometers (15 miles) north of the southeastern Romanian city of Galati.
The ministry did not identify the drone's origin.
A Spanish Air and Space Force F-18 deployed at the 57th Air Base Mihail Kogalniceanu established radar contact with the aircraft while conducting a monitoring mission and received authorization to engage it.
"The drone was safely shot down by the F-18 aircraft at 05:01," the ministry said.
Authorities identified a possible impact site for the wreckage between the villages of Baleni and Cudalbi in Galati County, in an unpopulated area.
Romania, a NATO member, shares a 614-kilometer (382-mile) land border with Ukraine and has experienced repeated Russian drone incursions during the more than four years of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Mines have also drifted into the Black Sea along important trade and energy routes.
In July, Romanian F-16 pilots shot down three Russian drones that entered Romanian airspace, the first time Romanian forces had destroyed such aircraft after dozens of incursions since the war began.
Sunday's interception was the fourth drone Romania has shot down this year.
Earlier this year, a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building in Galati during an overnight attack on neighboring Ukraine.
Two people were injured in that incident.
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