Poland, Romania scramble jets over drone incursion; last remaining Russian consulate in Gdansk to be shut after railway sabotage

NATO member Romania, bordering Ukraine, scrambled fighter jets early on Wednesday after a fresh drone incursion, the defence ministry said, while neighbouring Moldova also reported that its airspace was breached. Romania and Moldova have repeatedly seen violations of their airspaces, including drone fragments falling onto their soil, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In the latest incident, two German fighter jets serving in NATO member Romania were monitoring the air situation just after midnight at the border with Ukraine, following Russian air strikes, the Romanian defence ministry said in a press release. A phone alert was sent out to residents of southeastern Tulcea county, and "for a few minutes, the signal of a drone was detected, which had entered approximately eight kilometres (five miles) into national airspace" before it disappeared from the radar.

The drone then "reappeared intermittently on radar for approximately 12 minutes," the ministry said, with an alert also being sent to residents in southeastern Galati county. "Two more aircraft, F-16s of the Romanian Air Force, were scrambled," the ministry added, saying that "no cases of aircraft impact with the ground have been reported". "Teams of specialists are ready to begin ground searches," it added. Moldova also reported its airspace was breached by a drone during the night.

"After an exchange of information with partners in Ukraine and Romania, it has been confirmed that a drone flew over the national airspace," the country's defence ministry said in a press release. It added that the aircraft was flying at a low altitude of approximately 100 metres in the south and was not detected on monitoring systems.

On Monday, Romania ordered the evacuation of two villages -- the first such evacuation in the country as a result of the war in Ukraine -- after a Russian drone attack across the Danube river in neighbouring Ukraine set fire to a ship carrying liquefied petroleum gas.

The evacuation order was lifted on Tuesday.

Poland to close last remaining Russian consulate after railway sabotage

Poland said Wednesday that it will close its last remaining Russian consulate, in Gdansk in northern Poland, after the sabotage of a railway line to Ukraine that Warsaw has blamed on Russia. "I have decided to withdraw consent for the operation of the Russian consulate in Gdansk," Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told journalists on Wednesday. The move means the only Russian diplomatic mission that will remain open in Poland will be the embassy in Warsaw. "Ties with Poland have completely degraded. This (decision) is, probably, a symptom of this degradation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response. “Here, we can only express regret.” Warsaw's ties with Moscow have been historically strained, but nosedived after Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion, with Poland becoming one of Kyiv's main allies.