A Russian drone that was part of an overnight attack on Ukraine has crashed into an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people, Romanian authorities said.
In response to the crash, NATO member Romania asked the alliance for a faster transfer of anti-drone capabilities, the Foreign Ministry said, calling the drone's flight a serious violation of international law.
The drone was tracked by radar in Romanian airspace and crashed onto the roof of a building in Galati, Romania's Defence Ministry said in a statement. The impact was followed by a fire. Two people suffered minor injuries, and several people were evacuated.
Police and other agencies responded at the scene. Galati is on the Danube River, east of the Moldova and Ukraine borders.
The Romanian military scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a helicopter that were authorised to engage targets, and alert messages were sent to residents of the affected areas.
Russia has been using long-range ballistic missiles and drones to damage Ukraine’s power grid and hammer cities, and Ukraine has braced for further heavy bombardments.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday (local time) he was pressing the United States to provide more Patriot air defence missiles that could counter the Russian attacks.
He warned deliveries to Ukraine were falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverted and depleted US stocks. “I believe [the US] must act quicker. We are being very persistent,” Zelenskyy told reporters during a visit to Sweden.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the UN Security Council that the escalation and intensification of attacks risked getting out of control, with “unknown and unintended consequences". He said more civilians have been killed in the first four months of this year than in the same period in the past three years.
Guterres called for more diplomacy, immediate de-escalation and “a full and unconditional ceasefire”.
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