Two Spanish F-18s deployed in Romania under NATO command took off at dawn after two air targets were detected near the Ukrainian border. The objects did not ultimately enter Romanian airspace and were not intercepted.
Two Spanish F-18 fighter jets deployed in Romania under NATO command took off in the early hours of Tuesday after radar detected two aerial objects near the border between Romania and Ukraine, Romania's Ministry of Defence reported.
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The Spanish aircraft were scrambled from the Mihail Kogălniceanu air base, near the city of Constanta in the south-east of the country, after surveillance systems detected the two objects in Ukrainian airspace, close to the river border with Romania.
The objects did not enter Romanian airspace, so the Spanish jets did not have to intercept or shoot them down, according to the Romanian authorities.
Alert for residents near the border
The incident prompted the Romanian authorities to activate protection measures for people living in the northern and eastern areas of Tulcea county, a region on the border with Ukraine and very close to some of the areas repeatedly targeted since the start of the Russian invasion.
At 2:20 local time, the authorities sent a message to residents via the national RO-Alert system because of the risk of falling objects from the air. The alert ended at 3:14.
The two Spanish F-18s are part of the detachment deployed in Romania to take part in NATO's enhanced Air Policing mission, which is intended to step up surveillance and protection of the Alliance's eastern flank.
The incident comes against a backdrop of repeated drone-related episodes near the border between Ukraine and Romania since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.