Romania denies reports Russian missile entered its airspace during mass attack on Ukraine
Romania denies that there were Russian missiles in the country's airspace (Photo:nrares/flickr)
The information about a Russian missile crossed into the Romanian airspace hasn't been denied, Romanian Ministry of National Defence responded to it in a communique published on Feb. 10.
The Airspace Surveillance and Control of the Romanian Air Force observed an aerial target, highly likely a cruise missile launched by Russians from a ship in the Black Sea near the occupied peninsula of Crimea.
"It flew over Ukrainian territory, then crossed into Moldova and reentered the Ukrainian airspace without intersecting, at any time, the airspace of Romania," the message reads.
The closest point of the aerial target's trajectory to the country airspace was about 35 km (or 22 miles) north-east of the border. At 10:38 a.m. two Romanian MiG-21 fighter jets, that were performing a training flight, “were redirected to the Northern area of Romania to supplement the reaction options.” Two minutes later, after the situation became more clear, the aircraft resumed their task.
Ukrainian Armed Force Commander-in-Chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, has claimed Russian missiles crossed into the airspace of Moldova and a NATO member Romania during the last Russian mass missile attack on Ukraine on Feb. 10.
The spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ihnat, said that Ukraine had the opportunity to shoot down the missiles, but it had not done so because of the risks to the population of foreign countries.
Moldovan Ministry of Defense confirmed the information about Russian missiles in its air space. The Russian ambassador to Moldova was summoned to the Foreign Ministry.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
