Russian Drone Hits Romanian Apartment Building, Officials Say

Russia’s war with Ukraine spilled into Romania, a member of NATO, on Friday when the Romanian authorities said that a Russian drone had hit an apartment building on the territory of the Western military alliance for the first time, wounding two people.

Russian drones have repeatedly crashed without causing casualties along the Danube River border between Romania and Ukraine since 2023. But the drone crash on Friday, on the roof of a residential compound in the city of Galati, a major river port, sharply escalated tensions between NATO and Moscow.

The episode comes amid heightened fears that Russia might seek to expand the war beyond Ukraine to target a member of the NATO security alliance. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but Romania is.

The extensive use of drones by both Russia and Ukraine since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 has caused deep alarm across Europe’s formerly communist Eastern flank, testing NATO’s resolve to push back against Russia without provoking a wider conflict.

NATO on Friday condemned “Russia’s recklessness” for the drone crash in Romania, and the Romanian foreign minister, Toiu Oana, denounced “this extremely serious incident.” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, said, “Russia’s war of aggression has crossed yet another line.”

Romania’s president, Nicusor Dan, said that he had convened the national defense council and would “order proportionate measures in relation to the Russian Federation.” He did not elaborate.

“The unprecedented nature of the event demands a firm, coordinated, and appropriate response,” Mr. Dan wrote on social media, adding, “Romania is a NATO member state and will not accept, in any way, the war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine to be transferred onto its citizens.”

Working out a joint NATO response, however, requires consultation by all 32 members of the alliance. Under Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty, a member of the alliance can “bring any issue of concern, especially related to the security of a member country, to the table for discussion within the North Atlantic Council.” Romania has not said whether it will invoke the article.

As a member of NATO, Romania is covered by the alliance’s commitment to collective security, which obliges all members to come to the defense of any state that requests assistance in the event of an attack.

There was no immediate comment from Russia about the incident.

The Romanian Health Ministry said in a statement that a 53-year-old woman and a 14-year-old boy had been admitted to hospital with burns caused by a fire ignited by the drone. The authorities ordered residents of the apartment building to evacuate. Galati is one of the largest cities in eastern Romania, close to the border with Ukraine. In April, residents reported that a drone had crashed on the outskirts of the city.

Two Polish citizens were killed in 2022 when a Ukrainian air defense missile went off course during a Russian attack and struck a small village in eastern Poland, which is also a member of NATO. But the incident on Friday was the first time that a Russian drone had caused serious damage and injuries in a major urban area outside Ukraine.

After Russian drones flew into Polish airspace in September, NATO’s leaders announced efforts to step up air defenses on the alliance’s eastern flank. But with so many drones in the air, tracking them is difficult. The Romanian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday that radar systems had detected Russian drones flying “in the vicinity of Romanian airspace” after Russia “resumed drone attacks against civilian and infrastructure targets in Ukraine.” It said that F-16 warplanes and a helicopter had been scrambled shortly after 1 a.m. with orders to “engage the targets.”

Mr. Dan, the Romanian president, said that a decision was later taken “not to engage the target” because “the conditions did not exist to destroy it without the heightened risk of endangering civilian safety.”

In recent weeks, Ukrainian drones have crashed in three Baltic countries that border Russia after being knocked off course by Russian air defense and electronic jamming systems. Russia accused the Baltic countries of opening their air space to Ukrainian drones targeting Russian ports on the Baltic Sea, something that those nations — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all NATO members — have rejected.

Ms. Oana, the Romanian foreign minister, said that she had summoned Russia’s ambassador in Bucharest to communicate “the consequences that this lack of responsibility on the part of the Russian Federation will have for the diplomatic relations between our countries, as well as the next steps at the European level regarding sanctions packages.”

Romania, she added, has asked the NATO alliance to speed up the transfer of anti-drone capabilities.

Andrada Lautaru contributed reporting from Bucharest.