Nice try, Moscow.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zaharova, has made an unusual public complaint against Romania for failing to condemn Ukraine in strong enough terms for inadvertently entering its airspace for several minutes.
Ms. Zaharova used her weekly press conference on Thursday to single out what she called “a (too) gentle reaction from the Bucharest authorities’ to the brief incursion of four Ukrainian airplanes on Romanian territory.
“They (Bucharest) do not seem willing to think of the risks and to analyze national policies taking into account the country’s and people’s sovereign interests (and) ignoring society’s growing demands for a rational approach to the Ukraine problem,” an apparently indignant Ms. Zaharova said.
Russia staged a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which neighbors Romania, in 2022. Russian drones and debris have regularly violated Romania’s airspace, which Bucharest has alerted and protested.
Romania is a strong supporter of Ukraine and has sent military hardware to Kyiv, received refugees (there are currently about 120,000 in Romania) and has helped ensure the safe transport of grain in the Black Sea.
Clearly the Kremlin has Romania in its sights and is aggrieved at the government’s support for Ukraine.
NATO, the EU and the United Kingdom have recently confirmed that Russia is carrying out cyberattacks, digital manipulation and disinformation campaigns in Europe.
„We noted the defense ministry statement of July 21 in which “ the unintentional entry” for several minutes of four military airplanes that were fleeing Russian attacks on airport infrastructure in Western Ukraine,” the Russian spokeswoman said.
“Those kind of soothing and calm messages to Romanian residents of the type “everything’s ok”…. are in stark contrast to the hysterical reaction to Russian drone debris, which for unknown reasons landed on Romanian territory,” she added.
In a sign of the importance Moscow gave the issue, it was the third item on Thursday’s press briefing.
„It’s clear that encouraging the reckless band of (Volodymyr) Zelensky only encourages the catastrophic degradation of European security,” she said.
“It’s easier for them (Eds: Bucharest) to count the foreign planes in their skies and pretend that everything is in order. And that’s even better than if they weren’t there,” she said sarcastically.
Asked about Moscow’s position, President Nicusor Dan on Friday called it “completely false.”
Romania has been targeted by the Kremlin which ramped up efforts last year to spread propaganda to discredit its pro-European Union parties and candidates ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections. The presidential election was cancelled after a pro-Russian outsider won the first round over reports of Russian meddling, which Moscow denies.
In connection with the incident Moscow referred to, Romania’s defense ministry said its radar surveillance detected 12 planes north of its border with Ukraine early Monday.
Four of them unintentionally entered, for a few minutes, Romania’s airspace “without representing a real danger to national security, people’s lives or Romanian heritage,” it said.
“Ukrainian authorities have confirmed that they have taken measures to disperse military aircraft from airfields in western Ukraine, as a result of massive attacks by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian airport infrastructure,” the statement said.
Romanians face onslaught of disinformation over Ukraine war, defense ministry warns
