The Romanian army and local authorities on the Ukrainian border are coordinating efforts amid Russian attacks in the region.
The countries neighbouring Russia-invaded Ukraine are not safe from the war spill-over. Polish experts have recently concluded that the missile that killed 2 people in a farm in southern Poland last November had been fired by the Ukrainians. The missile had a range of 75 to 90 km, the media in Warsaw report, and at that time Russian troops were positioned in a place from where they could not have hit the Polish farm.
The missile hitting NATO-member Poland has fuelled fears that the war in Ukraine might spiral into a broader conflict, through the activation of the Allies’ mutual defence clause, under which an attack against one NATO member state is an attack against all.
In turn, Romania, which has an approx. 650-km long border with Ukraine, has had constant consultations with NATO with respect to developments on this border, ever since several drone pieces, most likely Russian, were found on Romanian territory, in the Danube Delta.
The most recent incident took place early this week on the Ukrainian banks of the Danube, near Orlovka, where drones fell near a Romanian ferry leaving for Isaccea. After this new episode, the Army chief of staff organised a video call with the local public authorities in the counties of Brăila, Constanţa, Galaţi and Tulcea, all of them along the Danube River, in the context of the Russian Federation’s attacks on Ukrainian Danube ports.
According to a news release issued by the Defence Ministry, the video call was intended to „optimise inter-institutional coordination.” The agenda included a presentation of the security situation, of the Army’s public communication process, steps to prepare the defence of the local population, economy and territory, and the responsibilities assigned to the various institutions in the national defence system.
The Russian army frequently targets the Danube ports of Izmail and Reni, in the south of Bessarabia, the eastern Romanian territory annexed by Stalin’s Soviet Union following an ultimatum in 1940, and incorporated into Ukraine, as a successor state, in 1991. These ports are a major gateway for Ukrainian grain exports, after in July Russia pulled out of a deal allowing grain transit via the Black Sea.
Reni is some 13 km from the Romanian city of Galați, while Izmail is located on the Chilia distributary of the Delta, which serves as a border between Romania and Ukraine. Both ports are critical for commodity transport on the Danube.
The Romanian diplomacy firmly asked the Russians to „cease the repeated attacks against Ukrainian population and civilian infrastructure,” and to comply with the rules of international law, including Romania’s sovereignty over the airspace above its territory, including its territorial sea.
(Bogdan Matei, Radio Romania International)
