Romania on Friday declared Russia’s Consul General in the Black Sea port of Constanta persona non grata after a drone exploded on a 10-storey residential building in southeastern Romania, injuring two.
President Nicusor Dan also said the consulate will close in Constanta, speaking after a meeting of the country’s top defense and intelligence officials.
He did not name the Russian official but Romania’s foreign ministry says he’s Andrey Kosilin who was appointed there in January 2023.
He thanked partners in the EU, in NATO, for condemning the incident. “This proves that there is Euro-Atlantic solidarity and unity.”
However, he also hit out at “the irresponsibility of some Romanian political leaders who try to excuse Russia. Romanian citizens can see who is Western, and who mimics pro-Westernism,” he said.
The Russian Geran 2 drone hit an apartment building, and two people were hospitalized, and 70 people evacuated.
Romania scrambled two F-16s but only had four minutes warning and chose not to shoot down the drone saying it could have caused more harm.
Romania does not have drone shields but has a partnership with Ukraine on the production of drones, Dan said.
He said the NATO member had formally requested that the allies move additional anti-drone capabilities to the national territory, in order to strengthen our defense and the Eastern Flank of the Alliance.
We have a common mechanism with the US and Great Britain on accelerating the production and testing of drones.
“Until this equipment is delivered, we have bilateral agreements in NATO for equipment to be present in Romania,” he said.
We insisted on speeding up and agreed that this equipment should arrive in Romania as soon as possible.
We also discussed civil defense at the meeting and the interior minister presented to us the measures that have already been taken for the entire potentially affected area, increase in the number of people, in this area we are ready.
