On a Friday in late March, a drone crashed into the top floor of an apartment building in Galați, a port city in eastern Romania near the Danube and the Ukrainian border. Two civilians were injured, and the roof caught fire. Romanian President Nicușor Dan directly blamed Vladimir Putin. Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu confirmed the unmanned aerial vehicle was Russian and carried explosives.
Kayoko Gotoh, co-director of the United Nations’ political and peace departments, said the incident crystallized repeated warnings from European leaders that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is spilling beyond its borders—now with casualties. Solidarity messages poured in from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Romania has recorded at least 28 drone incursions since February 2022, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Fifteen occurred in 2026 alone. But Romania is far from alone. Over the past year, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Moldova, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Bulgaria, and Greece have all reported unmanned aerial vehicles flying over cities, near ports, or close to critical infrastructure. Some are Ukrainian drones knocked off course by Russian GPS jamming; many are Russian-operated.
From Tactical Novelty to Persistent Threat
Before 2022, few defense analysts expected small drones to reshape the battlefield. But as Dominika Kunertova of the Center for Security Studies in Zurich documented, the war in Ukraine demonstrated that cheap, lightweight drones—costing as little as €257 each—could deliver tactical victories. The conflict has been described as a “drone war,” with Ukraine reportedly deploying 9,000 unmanned aerial vehicles daily and Russia responding in kind.
The first major incursion into NATO airspace came in September 2025, when at least 19 Russian Shahed drones entered Polish skies over the Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin regions—all bordering Belarus and Ukraine. Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said those posing a risk were neutralized. Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the incursions a “direct threat.”
Poland invoked Article 4 of NATO, triggering urgent consultations among the 32 allies. In response, Rutte created Operation Eastern Sentry to bolster the alliance’s posture along the eastern flank and to monitor, intercept, and shoot down drones. Rutte noted that the September incursion was “not an isolated incident” and that “Russia’s recklessness in the air along our eastern flank is increasing in frequency.”
Yet the operation faces a fundamental challenge: cost. As security analyst Charlie Edwards of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London put it, “At scale, launching hundreds of inexpensive drones can quickly exhaust the Alliance’s finite and costly supply of interceptors, potentially leaving some sectors exposed while reloading.” He warned that Russia will continue to exploit divisions within the alliance.
The initial response also exposed political fractures. Then-US President Donald Trump suggested the Polish incursions were an “accident,” prompting a sharp rebuke from Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski on social media. The episode underscored the difficulty of maintaining a unified front when member states face varying levels of threat perception.
European defense officials are now racing to adapt. Some countries are exploring net-firing drone hunters to capture rogue UAVs intact, while others invest in AI-powered drone swarms to protect subsea infrastructure. But as the Galați strike shows, the threat is no longer hypothetical—it is a daily reality from the Black Sea to the Baltic.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, taunted Europe on social media: “Be vigilant and don't be surprised by anything. The peaceful sleep is over.” For many Europeans, that warning has already come true.
