Romania is moving additional troops and military hardware closer to its border with Ukraine as Russian drones increasingly cross into the country’s eastern regions, Defense Minister Radu Miruce said, according to Digi24.
Miruce said the Romanian military is reinforcing its presence in Dobrogea, the country’s eastern region bordering Ukraine, where Russian drones are regularly detected and pose a threat. Incursions across the Romania-Ukraine frontier have increased recently, prompting Bucharest to send more forces to the border area.
Romania has already deployed a significant number of troops to Dobrogea and could add more. Air defenses have been strengthened, but some Russian drones are evading army radars and have occasionally crashed near residential areas, Miruce acknowledged.
To counter drones attempting to enter Romanian airspace, the military is using German-made Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft systems - also operated by Ukraine - alongside other air-defense assets.
The latest serious incident involving a Russian drone in Romania, a NATO member, occurred in mid-January 2026, when a drone crashed roughly 200 kilometers inside Romanian territory. Military radars did not detect it, and the timing of the crash remains unclear.
Before Miruce’s comments, no Romanian Defense Ministry official had openly stated that the country’s air defenses cannot detect and shoot down every drone.
