Three-Day Saga Reveals Romanian Authorities, Including President Iohannis, Incorrectly Denied Drone Crash; Luxembourg PM Initially Trusts Romanian President’s Statement

After two days of denials by all Romanian state authorities about the scenario of a drone crashing on Romanian territory, Defence Minister Angel Tîlvar confirms on Wednesday that debris from what appears to be a drone has been found in the area of Plauru in the Danube Delta. Ukrainian authorities have been insisting since Monday that the incident occurred on Sunday night during an attack on the Ukrainian port of Ismail. Meanwhile, a geolocation website and a German TV station have identified the location of the explosion. In addition to Defence Minister Angel Tîlvar, Romania’s foreign minister Luminița Odobescu, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and President Klaus Iohannis denied it.

Angel Tîlvăr took office at the Ministry of Defence in November and has a degree in foreign languages. He was an English teacher until 2004, when he entered politics.

Monday, September 4:

• Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nickolenko announced early Monday on his Facebook account that „during a Russian mass attack in the area of the port of Izmail, a Russian „shahed” fell and detonated on Romanian territory”
• In the morning, the Ministry of Defence „categorically” denied the information: „The responsible structures of the Ministry of National Defence have been monitoring in real time the situation generated by the Russian drone attacks, both last night and on Saturday and Sunday, on the infrastructure near the Ukrainian ports on the Danube. At no time did the means of attack used by the Russian Federation pose a direct military threat to Romania’s national territory or territorial waters”.
• Around noon, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said he also had photo evidence to support the incident: „I think in this particular case they (Romanian authorities – ed.) are now studying all aspects of what happened. There is no point in denying that something fell there. And we say with confidence, based on the evidence, that it was the Shahed drones. We have photographic evidence that something fell there.”
• Later in the afternoon, Foreign Minister Luminița Odobescu denied the incident in Berlin: „We see that Russia cynically continues to attack civilian infrastructure, not allowing Ukraine to export its grain. Of course, there is a risk of accidents or incidents, but so far this has not been the case.”

Tuesday, September 5:

• A website specializing in event tracking and used by the investigative website Bellingcat, shows in a series of posts on the X network (formerly Twitter) that it has gathered data that the Russian Shahed drone exploded on the Romanian side of the Danube, as Ukraine claims.
• A team of investigative journalists from the German TV station ntv, owned by Bertelsmann Media’s RTL group, checked the footage and concluded that „one or more Russian drones fell on Romanian territory and exploded”.
• Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu denied the information, in the context of press statements: „At this moment, this information is not confirmed. I have the information from the Minister of Defence. At the moment this information is not confirmed”. However, in the afternoon, during a visit to Cincu, President Klaus Iohannis again denied the incident in the Danube Delta: „There was no piece and no drone and no other part of any device that arrived in Romania. We have full control over our airspace, we have checked absolutely everything and I can reassure the population. There was nothing that reached Romania, but yes, we are concerned because these attacks are taking place at a very short distance from the Romanian border.” In response, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, present at the joint press conference with the Romanian head of state, said: „If the president of the country says so, I believe it”.

Wednesday, September 6:

• Around midday, the Defence Minister said from the Danube Delta that a very large area had been checked and confirmed that pieces had been found which could be drone drone, but posed no threat to the population. „We have covered a very large area, including the area that has been discussed in the public space and I confirm that pieces have been found that could be elements (of a drone),” said Tîlvăr
• An hour later, MApN spokesman General Constantin Spînu told Digi24 that „several elements that can be assimilated to drone elements” had been discovered since Tuesday evening on the Romanian bank of the Danube near Ceatalchioi, and the investigation team had taken samples for analysis to determine their origin and when they arrived in Romania.
• Marcel Ciolacu also confirmed the crash of a drone on Romanian territory.