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Russian Drone Hits Romanian Apartment Building, Officials Say

Romania is a NATO country, and the security alliance condemned “Russia’s recklessness” for an episode that sharply escalated tensions with Moscow.

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VideoRussian Drone Hits Romanian Apartment Building0:39

Andrew Higgins reported from Warsaw, and Cassandra Vinograd from Kyiv, Ukraine.

Published May 29, 2026Updated May 30, 2026

Russia’s war with Ukraine spilled into Romania, a member of NATO, on Friday when the Romanian authorities said that a Russian drone had hit an apartment building in a major port city, wounding two people. It was the first known time that a Russian drone had caused damage and injuries in a major urban area on the territory of the Western military alliance.

Russian drones have repeatedly crashed without causing casualties along the Danube River border between Romania and Ukraine since 2023. But the drone crash on Friday, on the roof of a residential compound in the port city, Galati, sharply escalated tensions between NATO and Moscow.

The episode comes amid heightened fears that Russia might seek to expand the war beyond Ukraine to target a member of the NATO security alliance. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but Romania is.

The extensive use of drones by both Russia and Ukraine since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 has caused deep alarm across Europe’s formerly communist Eastern flank, testing NATO’s resolve to push back against Russia without provoking a wider conflict.

The episode left residents of the building shocked and apprehensive about how the drone could penetrate Romanian territory. “We are not defended, we are not protected,” said Mariana Arhip, 69. “How is this possible? Don’t we have air defenses?”

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By Andrew Higgins and Cassandra Vinograd

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