Romanian border residents fear fallout as frequency of drone alerts rises

Romanian residents near the Ukraine border are living in fear due to Russian drone strikes

ISACCEA, Romania -- The text alerts blare first, then the blasts arrive.

For 48-year-old Robert Marian, who lives in Isaccea, a small Romanian border town in eastern Tulcea County along the Danube River with a crossing into Ukraine, the proximity of Russian drone strikes — just hundreds of meters across the river — has become a source of constant fear.

“There are alerts warning us that something is coming,” he told The Associated Press. “It happened two weeks ago, maybe three. I was asleep at midnight … One was quieter, but another was really loud. I got scared and ran out of the house.”

As Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on, drone incursions into Romania’s airspace have increased significantly. The blasts just across the Danube are a reminder of how close war is to NATO territory — at a time many fear Russian President Vladimir Putin might want to test the alliance’s resolve.

A Ukrainian border crossing with Romania was “deliberately damaged ... as well as export infrastructure,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sept. 1. Romanian customs announced the same day that activity at the Isaccea-Orlivka crossing had been temporarily suspended.

Alina Mihail, another Isaccea resident, says she feels sick when she hears the drone alerts and blasts ringing out across the border.

“I have so many nights where I don’t sleep anymore," she said. "I live in terror, me and my husband.”

Data from Romania’s Ministry of National Defense indicate a threefold increase in drone incursions so far this year compared with the whole of 2025 — 27 compared with 9 — and more than double the number of drones and drone debris found on the NATO member's territory, at 37 compared with 16.

Already this year, there have been 73 attacks near the border on Ukrainian territory, and some 56 military aircraft have been scrambled to “monitor and manage the situation.” Last year, there were 28 attacks near the border and 21 aircraft were raised. In the first year of the war, there was only one attack near the border.

In May, a drone injured a mother and child after crashing into an apartment block in the eastern town of Galati along the Danube River. A drone that entered Romania from neighboring Moldova was tracked through several counties last week before it reentered Moldova and crashed in a sunflower field.

The growing menace of drones crossing into Romania’s skies, many of which officials have blamed on Russia, prompted the NATO member to shoot down four drones this year, the first time since the war next door started.

NATO countries across Europe have accused Moscow of being behind a string of “hybrid war” actions against their countries, including drone incursions, sabotage, an attempted attack at a German airport and a Danish helicopter that was fired on with flares in the Baltic Sea.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Sept. 2 that “Russia has grown increasingly reckless” as Moscow continues its war.