Wonder if Klaus feels like an idiot for flat out denying that a drone hit Romania despite the available evidence. Maybe he thought that if he just pretended hard enough, he wouldn’t have to deal with it.
He said it wasn’t intentional, not that it didn’t happen
Incorrect. The position of the Romanian government was very much that the first drone didn’t hit them:
The Romanian Defence Ministry said Romania was not hit.
“The ministry of defence categorically denies information from the public space regarding a so-called overnight situation during which Russian drones would have fallen in Romania’s national territory,” it said.
“At no time did Russia’s means of attack generate direct military threats on Romanian national territory or waters.”
Keywords means of attack
What are you even talking about? You said that the Romanian government said it wasn’t intentional, not that it didn’t happen. I then linked you to a direct quote from them saying it didn’t happen. They categorically denied that it happened. Why the hell are you still arguing?
They denied it was an attack
No. They denied that a drone hit them. To deny that something is an attack, you have to first admit that something happened that could be interpreted as an attack. Like a drone hitting your soil. They denied that that happened.
Do you just not understand what you’re reading? Is that the problem? You said: “keywords means of attack”, which makes me think that you think that “means of attack” is somehow a signifier for your point. Which, it’s not. You just don’t understand what that means.
“Means of attack” in this case means a drone. If Ukraine had claimed that Russia accidentally hit Romanian territory with a missile, then “means of attack” would be a missile.
The full sentence, then, with translation (since you apparently don’t understand what it means), is:
“At no time did Russia’s means of attack [drone] generate direct military threats [cause damage, or impact, or explode] on Romanian national territory or waters. [within Romanian borders]”
Which is saying the exact same thing that the pithy one line summary from the article said above this quote:
The Romanian Defence Ministry said Romania was not hit.
Romania denied that a drone hit them. End of story.
Strong response is needed or it will continue
We romanians even have a joke for Iohannis’ kind of response:
“So, what do we do now?”
Iohannis: “We firmly condemn”
possible fragments or real fragments of possibly Russian drone
Both.
They need to determine if the fragments are from an actual drone that flew across the border. For all they know it’s fragments of multiple drones collected from multiple other locations and planted there.
Once they’re satisfied that it was flown and crashed, as opposed to planted, then they need to verify if it was Russian. More importantly they’ll want to confirm it was flown in by Russia and wasn’t somehow obtained by another country that wants to frame Russia in an attempt to draw Romania into the conflict.
The chances of entering a war over a single drone are very slim. People scream “article 5” like it’s some inevitable all out military action.
In reality it means proportional reaction which can be as simple as stationing more air defense systems on the border to detect and shut down any further attempts.
So the attribution to russia is one part of the investigation, another is determining the intention and best course of action.
There’s a good article on this issue in El Pais’s English language site:
Romania, the silent ally avoiding entanglement in Ukraine’s war
Bucharest is analyzing the wreckage of a possibly Russian drone on its territory, while maintaining a cautious approach towards Moscow following recent incidents near its border. […]
If an attack were to occur on Romanian soil, the country’s army is prepared to respond accordingly, says the Ministry of Defense. Bucharest is ready to deal with any Russian drone or missile that strays into Romania, but is also wary of escalating tensions. Romania can also invoke Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, which calls for joint consultations among member states to safeguard political independence and territorial integrity and security.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
BUCHAREST, Sept 9 (Reuters) - New fragments of a drone similar to those used by the Russian military were found on Romanian soil, the defence ministry said on Saturday, and President Klaus Iohannis said this indicated an unacceptable breach of Romania’s air space had occurred.
“I firmly condemn this incident caused by Russian attacks on Ukrainian Danube river ports.”
The attacks on Ukraine’s river ports, just hundreds of metres from the Romanian border, have increased security risks for NATO whose members have a mutual defence commitment.
The U.S. State Department said earlier this week it would rotate additional U.S. F-16 fighter jets to bolster NATO’s air policing mission in Romania.
The defence ministry said Romania’s Naval Forces deployed search teams after local authorities alerted them to suspected drone fragments discovered 2.5 km southeast of the village of Plauru, across the Danube from the Ukrainian port of Izmail.
Since July, when Moscow abandoned a deal that lifted a de facto Russian blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, it has repeatedly struck Ukrainian river ports that lie across the Danube from Romania.
The original article contains 347 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 48%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
