Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced at a briefing at the Council of Ministers about the invasion and explosion of a drone in Bulgarian airspace.
"At 8:10 this morning we had an incident - an invasion of a drone into Bulgarian airspace and the explosion of the drone 100 meters inside the Bulgarian border from the direction of Romania", he explained and added that this happened in the immediate vicinity of the compressor station 200 meters from the former checkpoint between Bulgaria and Romania, 200 meters from our compressor station.
"Noise from this drone was registered by the "Border Police" in Romania and then a loud explosion was heard from the border police unit. The place of the drone explosion was immediately identified, but at the moment there are teams from the "Border Police" and the Ministry of Defense, who are currently establishing the type of drone," Radev also said.
The Prime Minister assured that the area has been cordoned off, there is no damage to people or infrastructure. It has not been detected or identified in Romanian airspace, nor in ours. "We also have no information from the combined air operations center in Torrejon. Measures are currently being taken in the area, we will establish the type of drone, as a result of what happened two weeks ago in Romania - three drones were shot down and we reacted immediately", he explained and added that the Ministry of Defense has strengthened radar coverage and surveillance capabilities in this area.
Radev specified that they already have photographic material from the drone, but they cannot yet say what type it is. "It is not a toy drone, it is a larger drone, according to border guards, a loud explosion with black smoke was heard, it fell into a sunflower field. There are instructions from us to all departments, security has been strengthened, where we have anti-drone defense capabilities, they have been activated," the prime minister explained.
Radev also said that they continue to monitor the situation and strengthen surveillance, and after this incident they will redeploy forces and resources of the "Border Police" to detect and combat drones from the border with Turkey to the border in Romania.
Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov stated that until July 31, our airspace was protected by MiG-29s. "From 9:00 on July 31, as a result of what is happening in Romania, we have strengthened airspace surveillance by deploying additional forces and resources," the military minister explained.