Romania reports five incidents involving maritime drones in Black Sea

Romania's Acting Minister of Defense, Radu Miruță, stated that there have been five reported instances of drone debris being found at sea after the drones were destroyed. Four of these cases occurred before the incident involving a Ukrainian drone that exploded in the port of Constanța in early June, and one occurred after that.

It was reported by News.ro.

According to the minister, only some of these debris pieces contained explosives: “Debris from drones that had been destroyed was found at sea; some of them contained explosives, others did not. This happened earlier. Perhaps one of them appeared after the incident.”

Miruță was also asked why the Romanian army cannot release a report on the drone explosion in the port of Constanța that is independent of the Ukrainian side’s claims.

“The Romanian Army does not provide security for the Port of Constanța in peacetime. The Romanian Army is one of Romania’s state institutions that intervenes in peacetime, in situations such as these, when it is called upon for support. There are Romanian state agencies that, by law, are responsible for such matters in peacetime. I have asked my colleagues in the Navy and Army—even if the responsibility does not fall directly on them, since this concerns the Romanian state, to take all measures they deem possible, because, in my opinion, no one else can take these measures regarding the port of Constanța,” stated Radu Miruță.

When asked why the ships stationed at the military port of Constanța did not intervene if they noticed a drone flying past them, he explained that it was because they were not on a combat mission.

“A fire truck in a garage doesn’t put out a fire several kilometers away if it hasn’t been assigned that task,” the acting defense minister explained metaphorically.

He emphasized that “from the perspective of coastal defense, the Romanian Army is not responsible for such matters in peacetime.”

As a reminder, in June, a Ukrainian-made maritime drone exploded in the Romanian port of Constanta. The authorities activated a “red alert response plan.”

On June 5, the Ukrainian Navy agency reported losing control of one of its unmanned naval vessels due to russian electronic warfare (EW) measures in the Black Sea operational zone. The Ukrainian Navy provided the necessary information to the Romanian Navy.

Radu Miruță, Romania’s acting Minister of Defense, stated in a television interview that he had proposed asking the Ukrainian side to program the maritime drones in such a way so that, in the event of a loss of control, the drone’s coordinates would prevent it from entering Romanian territorial waters, and so that it would self-destruct at a distance of 12 nautical miles.