Romania scrambles fighter jets after drone breach during Russian strike on Ukraine

BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Romania scrambled fighter jets on Wednesday when a drone breached its airspace during a Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure near the border, the defense ministry said.

The European Union and NATO state, which shares a 650 km (400 mile) border with Ukraine, has had Russian drone fragments fall on its territory repeatedly as Moscow attacks Ukrainian port infrastructure across the river Danube from Romania.

The ministry said the radar first picked up the signal of a drone 8 km inside national airspace near the villages of Periprava and Chilia Veche in Tulcea County.

The drone signal disappeared off the radar before reappearing intermittently for 12 minutes near villages in Galati county, it added.

Romania scrambled two Eurofighters - part of German air policing missions in Romania - and later two Romanian F-16 fighter jets and warned citizens in the southeastern counties of Tulcea and Galati to take cover, the ministry said.

The ministry added it received no reports of drones hitting ground in Romanian territory.

Poland, a NATO member bordering western Ukraine, has temporarily closed Rzeszow and Lublin airports in the southeast of the country and scrambled Polish and allied aircraft as a precaution to safeguard its airspace.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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