{"id":196003,"date":"2026-08-20T21:26:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/196003\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T21:26:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:26:50","slug":"romanian-jet-blasts-drone-near-offshore-gas-platform-president-blames-moscow-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/196003\/","title":{"rendered":"Romanian jet blasts drone near offshore gas platform, president blames Moscow \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI strongly condemn the intensification of these types of irresponsible incidents on the part of the Russian Federation,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NicusorDanRO\/status\/2090387596832555313\/photo\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>European Commission President Von der Leyen also weighed in on the incident, lending European solidarity to Romania. \u201cAn escalating campaign of threats is underway, unsettling our citizens and seeking to divide our Union,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/vonderleyen\/status\/2090400506078175555?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">she wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the European Drone Defence Initiative and the Eastern Flank Watch, we are scaling up production in Europe &#8230; So we can respond to emerging threats with speed, unity and resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/miruta.ro\/posts\/pfbid0SULqfEPr9LWxeQL1T8j8CM4YPogYsPUNDPEgkP2TPJH3i3fx6JsskW1sTq73Cx2Gl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook post<\/a> by Romanian Defense Minister Radu Miru\u021b\u0103, the drone was spotted by Romania\u2019s Coast Guard a few hundred meters from the Neptun Deep platform, where several hundred people were working. After consulting the president, Romanian authorities scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and ordered the drone be destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>Miru\u021b\u0103 said the drone had not come from its neighbor: \u201cThrough the direct communication channel recently created with the Ukrainian side, I received the official confirmation that it is not of Ukrainian origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neptun Deep is Romania\u2019s largest natural gas development and is located in the Black Sea. Romania began developing the project in 2023, with the first gas to be extracted in 2027; it is expected to help Romania become the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omvpetrom.com\/en\/about-us\/what-we-do\/our-projects\/neptun-deep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">EU\u2019s largest producer of natural gas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>NATO allies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/nato-allies-weigh-fast-track-drone-purchases-russia-crash-romania\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">have previously raised concerns<\/a> about protecting Neptun Deep from Russian drone attacks. Von der Leyen <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/vonderleyen\/status\/2090400506078175555?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">called the incident<\/a> \u201chybrid warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Russian embassy in Romania did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI strongly condemn the intensification of these types of irresponsible incidents on the part of the Russian Federation,\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[137],"tags":[1615,16706,7976,329,403,347],"class_list":["post-196003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-drones","tag-nicusor-dan","tag-romania","tag-russia","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117129959421884886","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}