Poland’s Undersecretary of State in Poland’s Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, Michał Baranowski, told Euronews that the Russian drone incursion into Romania early on Friday morning — following a series of similar incidents across the Baltic region — demonstrates that the European Union is no longer living in peacetime.
“These are not mistakes. These are provocations,” he told Euronews’ Europe Today programme.
“It’s extremely serious. It is difficult to overstate the scale of this escalation.”
The drone was part of an overnight Russian attack on Ukraine and crashed into an apartment building in south-eastern Romania, injuring two people, Romanian authorities said on Friday.
Since the beginning of May, there have been at least six confirmed or suspected drone incursions into the airspace of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland.
The incidents have raised alarm within both the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union, which rely on countries along the Baltic and eastern flank as a key line of defence against Russia.
In September last year, nearly 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace. At the time, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the incident as a “direct threat” and blamed Moscow.
“We are very clear about who the aggressor is here,” Baranowski said, referring to the latest incursion in Romania.
“It is, of course, up to the Romanian government to decide whether to activate Article 4 of NATO, which would allow for allied consultations.”
Article 4 of the NATO treaty allows any member state to request emergency consultations when it believes its territorial integrity, political independence or security is under threat.
Romanian President Nicușor Dan said in a post on social media platform X that he had called for a NATO meeting at 11:00 local time to discuss the implications of what he described as “the most serious incident” affecting the country since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“We will order proportionate measures in relation to the Russian Federation,” the post added.
A diplomatic source told Euronews that, following the incursions in the Baltics last week, there had been discussions about potentially triggering Article 4 during a meeting of foreign ministers in Sweden on Friday. No such move has yet been made.
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