“I just found out, before entering this hall, that something happened with what is believed to be our drone,” said V. Putin at a press conference in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana.
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“No one can say the origin of this or that aircraft until its investigation is carried out,” he said.
“If they provide us with any objective data (…), then we will assess what happened,” added V. Putin.
Romanian officials earlier on Friday reported that during a night attack directed at Ukraine, a drone crashed into an apartment building in Romania and injured two people.
The Romanian Ministry of Defense stated that the drone was tracked by radar in Romanian airspace and fell on the roof of a building in Galați. A fire broke out after the impact. Two people suffered minor injuries, and several others were evacuated.
This was the first strike on a residential building outside Ukraine since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion in 2022.
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Bucharest stated that the drone was Russian, and the incident received strong condemnation from the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union (EU).
The Romanian president announced on Friday that he will expel the Russian consul general in the Black Sea port city of Constanța and close this representation.
“Russia bears full responsibility for this incident (…) Given this situation, the Russian Federation’s consul general in Constanța has been declared persona non grata, and the Russian Federation’s consulate in Constanța will be closed,” said President Nicușor Dan in a video statement.
Since February 2022, when the Russian military conflict with Ukraine began, drones have entered Romanian airspace dozens of times, but this is the first time a residential building in the country has been hit.
