The Defense Committee of the Romanian Senate will discuss at a meeting today with representatives of the Ministry of National Defense changes to the legislation that would allow the Romanian army to shoot down drones that enter Romanian airspace without permission, reports the information site Ziare, referring to parliamentary sources, reported BTA.
Romania, which is a member of NATO, has a 650 km common border with Ukraine. Debris from Russian drones has already fallen on Romanian territory several times after attacks on port and civil infrastructure on the Ukrainian side of the Danube River.
Fragments of a drone were found on Monday near the village of Periprava in the eastern Romanian county of Tulcea. On Sunday, residents of Tulcea and Constanta counties received warnings through the Ro-Alert system, and the Ministry of Defense sent two F-16 fighter jets to monitor the airspace.
Senator Nicoleta Pauliuk, who chairs the Senate Defense Committee, announced that she has invited representatives of the Department of National Defense today at 12:00 p.m. to discuss changes to legislation regarding the response to enemy drone intrusions and in case of unauthorized entry into the Romanian airspace.
The President of the Senate and former Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Chuca said on Monday that Romania should negotiate with Ukraine a protocol that would allow the activation of air defense systems (ADF) in cases where Russian drones enter Romanian airspace.< /p>
One of the loopholes in the current law is that the military can open fire on a suspicious aircraft after it has attempted to communicate with the pilot. However, the drones do not have pilots, notes the Ziare information site.
Prime Minister Marcel Çolaku assured today that if a drone that was sent to hit a target on the territory of Romania is identified, it will be shot down immediately, Agerpress reported. Çolaku was asked whether Romania currently has the necessary legislation to be able to shoot down drones that penetrate Romanian territory.
The Prime Minister replied that this question opens up a whole discussion about the different situations – whether the drone is located on the territory of Romania or Ukraine, whether it is aimed at targets on the territory of Romania, etc. He assured, however, that “if any drone enters the territory of Romania, it is identified and sent to hit a target on the territory of Romania, will be taken down immediately".