At 10:13 EEST (07:13 UTC) on Sunday, 26 July 2026, a Romanian Air Force F-16 shot down a drone over Romanian territorial waters in the Black Sea, 12 km northeast of the coastal town of Sulina, Tulcea county. The intercept was completed within five minutes of the drone entering Romanian airspace, the fastest response in the three consecutive-day shoot-down series. Romania's Foreign Ministry subsequently summoned Russia's ambassador over what it described as "repeated violations" of NATO airspace.
This was Romania's third drone intercept in three consecutive days, following shoot-downs near Padina, Buzău county on 24 July and near Sfântu Gheorghe, Tulcea county on 25 July. The July 26 drone brought Romania's documented total to 33 airspace breaches since Russia began targeting Ukrainian Danube port infrastructure with Shahed-136 and Geran-2 drones.
Associative image. This image is not from the incident described. It shows an F-16 fighter aircraft of the type operated by Romania's Air Force for air policing missions over the Danube Delta and Black Sea coastal corridor.
Romania intercepted the drone within five minutes, over open Black Sea water
The drone entered Romanian airspace and was engaged 12 km northeast of Sulina in Romanian Black Sea territorial waters within five minutes of detection. The three consecutive July intercepts show a clear compression in both response time and ground track:
- 24 July (Padina): drone entered east of Sulina, travelled approximately 200 km over Romanian territory, downed after roughly 80 minutes.
- 25 July (Sfântu Gheorghe): drone entered near Sfântu Gheorghe, downed 10 km inside the border after 12 minutes.
- 26 July (Sulina): drone entered, downed within 5 minutes and 12 km over Black Sea territorial waters.
The July 26 shoot-down is the first of the three to take place over the Black Sea rather than over Danube Delta land. Sulina sits at the mouth of the Sulina arm of the Danube, the delta's main navigable channel to the sea, and Romania's territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles from the baseline. The drone was destroyed inside that zone with no debris falling on populated land.
Romania summoned Russia's ambassador: President Dan, FM Toiu, and PM Bolojan condemned the breaches
Following the third consecutive intercept, Romania's Foreign Ministry summoned Russia's ambassador to Bucharest. Foreign Minister Oana Toiu described the diplomatic step as a response to "repeated violations." President Nicușor Dan stated that it was "inadmissible and intolerable for the Russian Federation to continue violating Romania's airspace, which is, at the same time, NATO airspace and European Union airspace." Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan called the breaches "unacceptable."
President Dan also publicly congratulated Romanian pilots and ground crews for "the professionalism, courage and efficiency with which they carried out their mission" across all three intercepts.
The July sequence brings Romania's documented total to 33 breaches since 2022
Romania's defence ministry stated that Russian drones had entered Romanian airspace without permission 33 times since Russia began targeting Ukraine's Danube infrastructure, three of those in three days in late July 2026. The three July shoot-downs are the first instances of Romanian forces destroying intruders over Romanian territory. Before July 2026, Romania had not intercepted a single drone over its own soil despite repeated incursions; the shift followed the 29 May 2026 strike in which a Geran-2 hit a 10-storey apartment block on Bulevardul Brăilei in Galați, injuring two residents in the first confirmed case of a Russian drone wounding civilians on NATO territory.
The drone type from the July 26 shoot-down remained under investigation by Romania's General Prosecutor's Office at the time of reporting. The drone downed on 24 July was confirmed as a Shahed type used by Russian forces; the 25 and 26 July drones were pending forensic examination.
AirVeto's wind layer for this event provides regional context, not a drone trajectory reconstruction
The Shahed-136 and its Geran-2 derivative are powered, guidance-controlled loitering munitions flying preprogrammed routes. Unlike contraband balloons, which are pure wind-drift objects whose transit route AirVeto can reconstruct directly from the wind field, a guided military drone's ground track is determined by its navigation system and airspeed. The wind layer shown for the 07:08–07:13 UTC window over the Sulina area and Romanian Black Sea territorial waters is regional meteorological context for the intercept zone, not a release-point or trajectory reconstruction.
This reconstruction draws on reporting by United24 Media, Al Jazeera, Kyiv Independent, Romania Insider, and Ukrainska Pravda, and on AirVeto's wind-model data for the 07:08–07:13 UTC window on 26 July 2026. Methodology behind AirVeto's wind modelling is documented on the methodology page. A full archive of drone and airspace incidents across the EU eastern frontier is at the incident archive.