Following the apparent discovery of drone debris close to Romania’s border with Ukraine, NATO leader Jens Stoltenberg stated on Thursday that there was no indication that Russia had conducted a premeditated strike on an alliance member, Romania.
According to Stoltenberg, Romania alerted its NATO members on Wednesday of the discovery, saying it “demonstrates the risk of incidents and accidents.”
“We don’t have any information indicating any intentional attack by Russia and we are awaiting the outcome of the ongoing investigation,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told EU lawmakers.
“Regardless of that outcome, what we have seen of course is a lot of fighting and also air attacks close to NATO borders.”
President Klaus Iohannis of Romania called for a “urgent investigation” on Wednesday into debris thought to be drone parts found on its soil as a result of assaults in neighboring Ukraine.
The information was revealed following repeated denials by NATO member Romania of Kiev’s allegations that Iranian-made Russian drones fell and exploded on Romanian soil during a raid on the Ukrainian port of Izmail on Sunday night.
Romanian Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on the phone about the ongoing inquiry while Blinken was in Ukraine, according to the State Department.
The two also discussed “additional cooperation to preserve airspace security,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February of last year, NATO has concentrated on preventing the conflict in Ukraine from spreading to its soil.
NATO’s shared defense agreement with Moscow means that any attack on one of its members may push the US-led alliance into a possible nuclear battle with Moscow.
In November of last year, when a missile fired from across the border killed two people in Poland, fears of a potential flare-up skyrocketed.
According to NATO, the missile was fired by Ukraine’s air defense system and not by Russia.
