Romania summons Russian envoy as it shoots down third intruding drone

The ongoing violations of Romanian airspace raise concerns over impact on NATO states of Ukraine-war" class="entity-link entity-event" data-entity-id="1200" data-entity-type="event">Russia-Ukraine war.Romania has summoned Russia’s ambassador as it has reported that it shot down three drones in as many days.A Romanian plane shot down a drone after an incursion into the country’s airspace on Sunday morning, the Ministry of Defence reported. The incident followed similar interceptions on Friday and Saturday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Ukraine beheads its military as its performance begins to soarlist 2 of 3Romanian jet fighter shoots down suspected Russian dronelist 3 of 3At least 15 killed in Ukrainian and Russian strikes as holiday camp hitend of listConcern that Moscow’s war on Ukraine risks entangling neighbouring NATO states is on the rise. Romania is one of several alliance members to confront repeated stray drones recently, as Russia and Ukraine launch hundreds of the unmanned aircraft daily.Following Sunday’s incident, Bucharest summoned Russia’s ambassador to complain about the “repeated violations”, Foreign Minister Oana Toiu wrote on social media.Romania intercepted a Russian drone for the first time on Friday. That followed a similar incident on Saturday. An F-16 fighter jet then shot down an unmanned aircraft over the Black Sea on Sunday.President Nicusor Dan reported that an investigation had found that Friday’s drone was a “Shahed model, used by the Russian Federation in its war of aggression against Ukraine”.‘Unacceptable and intolerable’The persistent entry of Russian drones into the airspace of Eastern European countries is widely seen as a bid to test NATO and the European Union defences and reaction.“It is unacceptable and intolerable for the Russian Federation to continue violating Romania’s airspace, which is also the airspace of NATO and the European Union,” US Army Colonel Martin O’Donnell, a senior NATO military spokesperson, wrote on social media following Sunday’s incident.