Tenth Airspace Breach: Drone Transits Ukraine and Moldova, Crashes in Romania's Suceava County

On the afternoon of September 12, the Air Operations Control Centres of Ukraine and Moldova notified Romania's Ministry of National Defence that a drone had crossed both countries' airspace heading toward north-eastern Romania. Two Romanian F-16s from the 86th Air Base at Borcea scrambled to monitor the object, which crashed in a cornfield near Botoșenița Mare, in Calafindești commune, Suceava County, causing a small fire and leaving a crater roughly one metre wide and 30cm deep. A Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) pyrotechnics team was deployed to the site; no casualties were reported. Neither Moldovan nor Romanian authorities disclosed the precise point at which the drone crossed into Moldovan territory. It marks the tenth confirmed Moldovan airspace breach since the drone crisis began August 9.