Tulcea drone alerts, 8 Nov 2026

Romania sent RO-Alert warnings to eastern and northern Tulcea County on Sunday, November 8, 2026, after the defence ministry's radar picked up air targets near the Ukrainian border. By AirVeto's approximate measurement, the first target lay about 74 km from Sulina. The second lay about 16 km from the town.

The first alert reached eastern Tulcea at 14:02 local time

The ministry's radar detected an air target about 30 km east of Snake Island, in Ukrainian airspace, Radio Romania Constanta reported, citing the ministry. Two Spanish F-18s on air-policing duty took off from Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base, and a RO-Alert went to eastern Tulcea County at 14:02. The first target then vanished from radar east of Sulina.

The county's emergency service, ISU Delta Tulcea, said the message covered only the east of the county and that no calls reached the 112 emergency line.

A second target 55 km west of the island brought out two helicopters

The radar then picked up a new target about 55 km west of Snake Island, and two Spanish NH-90 helicopters took off from the same base, HotNews reported. The ministry's wording, as the outlets carry it, gives no airspace for this second target. The air alert ended at 15:26.

Taking "west" as due west, that point lies about 16 km from Sulina, against about 74 km for the first point taking "east" as due east.

A third alert reached northern Tulcea in the late afternoon

Later a RO-Alert went to the north of the county, classed as an extreme alert and warning of a possible drone incursion, according to TLnews, citing ISU Tulcea. The ministry said radar had detected a new target in Ukrainian airspace about 4 km north of Chilia Veche, near the Romanian border. Two Romanian F-16s on air-policing duty took off from Fetesti Air Base.

Realitatea reported, citing the ministry, that this alert ran from 16:51 to 17:59 and counted it as the third RO-Alert of the day. The reports AirVeto read mention take-offs and the loss of the first target from radar, and report no shoot-down.

Two October events at Sulina ended differently

On October 14 the ministry reported two kills off Sulina made by Ukrainian air defence, after the targets had left Romanian airspace. On October 17 Romanian F-16s shot down two Geran-family drones in territorial waters off the town.

The wind at 3,000 m over Sulina blew from the north-northwest at 54 km/h

AirVeto's wind model gives the center-point wind over Sulina at 14:00 local time, when the first alert went out.

Altitude	Wind from	Speed
500 m	W	15 km/h
1,000 m	WNW	16 km/h
2,000 m	NNW	36 km/h
3,000 m	NNW	54 km/h

By 17:00 local time, during the third alert, the wind at 3,000 m was still from the NNW at 58 km/h. Directions are where the wind blew from.

This reconstruction is based on the Romanian defence ministry's statements as carried by Radio Romania Constanta, Realitatea, HotNews and TLnews, and on AirVeto's wind-model data for the event window. How the model is built is on the methodology page. Every drone and airspace event AirVeto has reconstructed along the EU's eastern border is in the incident archive.