Russian drones found near vital European offshore gas site, get blown up
Romanian army divers used explosives to destroy two Russian-made drones found floating in the Black Sea near Romania’s largest natural gas project, according to the NATO member country’s defense minister.
Defense Minister Radu Miruță posted a Facebook video supposedly showing one of the drones being blown up in the water by explosive ordnance disposal divers of the Romanian army on August 11, as reported by Reuters and other news outlets. The drones were first spotted in the water by a ship working in the vicinity of the Neptun Deep—an offshore gas project under development in the Black Sea that will make Romania the largest gas producer in the European Union.
A Romanian Coast Guard ship that responded with army soldiers aboard found two drifting Gerbera-type drones of Russian design along with other debris. Miruță also disclosed that Romania had reached out to “Ukrainian partners who confirmed that the systems do not belong to them.”
The ongoing war in Ukraine, following the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, has led to multiple incidents in which drones either accidentally or intentionally strayed across the borders of European countries such as Romania. Dozens of Russian drone incursions into Romanian airspace have occasionally caused damage and forced Romania to respond with costly fighter jet interceptions to shoot down some of the wayward drones.
In one of the most serious incidents, a Russian Geran-2 drone with an explosive payload struck an apartment building in southeastern Romania, injuring a child and a woman while forcing 70 people to evacuate the area on May 29. Another previous Russian drone strike damaged a workshop and an electricity pole and forced over 500 people to evacuate.
Reporting from Ars Technica contributed to this story.
