Although Kremlin strike planners probably didn’t intend to hit a NATO member, Romania’s military launched F-16s fighters and said it would investigate.
A Russian kamikaze drone on Wednesday flew into NATO air space and detonated near a Romanian village, Ukrainian news reports said, but official Bucharest said the fact of the strike wasn’t confirmed and that they would check.
Ukrainian social media video recorded in the river port city of Izmail, opposite Plaura, showed an orange flash lighting up the night horizon and a booming blast on the Romanian side of the river. Flames and smoke reaching hundreds of meters into the sky were visible following the explosion. A Russian kamikaze drone strike against Izmail had been in progress at the time.
Assuming this is just another mistake (likely), it seems like since Russian arms sometimes end up hitting NATO soil, that the reasonable course of self-defense is to extend their air defenses and shoot down arms that come near their territory. You can't know that the drone will go off target until it does, so you just have to shoot down anything heading in the general direction, even if it's likely targeting Ukraine.
I'm going to say the same thing that I said about the Polish incident. That incident only happened because Russia chose to attack Ukraine in an area directly bordering on another country. Izmail is also right across the border. I'll wait on more dependable sources for an investigation, and I'm certainly not agitating for an escalation on NATO's side. At the same time, if Russia's bombing campaign ultimately results in foreseeable casualties outside of the country, I put the blame on Russia. Ukraine has the right to defend itself.
Seems to be a separate incident from the earlier hit near Grindu (ro)/Reni (ua) in the same area. Hopefully "just" crashes from the drones getting knocked out above Ukraine.
Might also be GPS jamming combined with Russia targeting near the border that threw the drone's navigation off.
The drone hit outside of a Romanian village near a river which is a weird target, unless maybe Russia is posturing to intimidate NATO. But it's probably just GPS jamming.
While this is not worthy of ww3, defending nato member space is something nato can and should do. Whether the strike is intended or not, nato is legitimate to defend the area to prevent a strike. More than legitimate in fact.
I don't want young men to die, I want the Russians to go home, return Ukrainian sovereign territory, and live peacefully. I don't want Russians bombing and killing Ukraine or any other nation. I want them to fuck off, and if they won't fuck off, I want the Ukrainian military to kill them all and protect themselves.
Just because Article 5 is activated doesn't mean we're going to war. It was activated on 9/11.
There's a small small chance Article 4 will be activated, which could be used for some mobilization (but is clerical, to summon NATO for discussion). But I think nothing happens.