Russian drone crashes into apartment building in Romania

The drone hit a residential building, injuring two people and causing a fire, officials said. Ukraine war: Russian drone crashes into Romanian apartment block Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Copyright current_year BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. About 70 people were evacuated as the fire was put out A small fire is seen on top of a multi-storey building at night Russian drone crashes into apartment building in Romania A Russian drone hit an apartment building in Romania, the country's defence ministry said early on Friday, causing a fire and injuring two people. The drone crashed in the eastern city of Galati as Russia carried out attacks in Ukraine near the border, the ministry said in a statement. The Romanian General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations said the drone's entire explosive payload detonated, causing a fire on the 10th floor of the residential building. Russian drones have strayed across the border of the Nato member country a number of times during the four-year war with Ukraine, but this was the first time citizens from Romania had been hurt. Russia has yet to comment on the incident. "This incident represents a serious and irresponsible escalation on the part of the Russian Federation," Romania's foreign ministry said, adding Bucharest had informed the Nato secretary general and "requested measures to accelerate the transfer of anti-drone capabilities to Romania". The emergency services said two people received medical treatment after suffering abrasions and around 70 people were evacuated as the fire was put out. In a statement on X, a Nato spokesperson condemned "Russia's recklessness", adding that the military alliance would "continue to strengthen our defences against all threats, including drones". Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled after the drones were detected in Romanian airspace, the defence ministry said. "One of these drones entered Romanian airspace, was tracked by radar as far as the southern part of the city of Galati, and crashed onto the roof of an apartment building, with the impact triggering a fire," it said. The River Danube nearby forms the border with Ukraine, and Ukrainian ports are regularly targets of Russian air attacks. In an incident in April, another Russian drone caused material damage in Galati, but no injuries. Romania's defence ministry says that since the start of the war in Ukraine, drone fragments have been found on Romanian territory on 47 separate occasions, 12 of them this year alone. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Meanwhile, a nationwide air raid alert was also issued overnight in Ukraine, where officials in the south of the country said the port of Izmail in the Odesa region came under drone attack early on Friday. And in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, three utility workers were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Thursday, the Kremlin-installed head of the region said. A fourth man was seriously injured in the incident, Denis Pushilin said on the Telegram messaging app. A woman seen from behind, wearing a headscarf, watches as firefighters extinguish a fire in a large round building - smoke can be seen rising into the blue sky Russia ramps up threats against Ukraine. What does that say about the war? An image shared by the Russian Defence Ministry press-service which claims to show two Russian servicemen in military garb checking streets of Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) in the Donetsk region in Ukraine. Almost 500,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine war, GCHQ says GCHQ's director Anne Keast-Butler set out the threats facing the UK in her inaugural public speech. With the US pulling out of trilateral talks with Russia and Ukraine, the EU is looking for potential candidates to step in. Moscow's rhetoric may point to the Kremlin's nervousness over the war's direction, our defence correspondent writes from Kyiv. The Ukrainian flag is removed after four years by the newly elected Reform UK administration. It comes after the Ukrainian capital suffered one of the biggest aerial assaults of the war overnight on Saturday. A hypersonic missile, which reportedly travels over 10 times the speed of sound, was used, Russia has confirmed. Eighteen people were killed and 42 others injured in the strike on the town in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine. Ukraine says it struck Russia's elite Rubicon drone military unit in a Moscow-occupied region.