Romanian military divers destroyed two Gerbera-type drones found drifting near the strategic Neptun Deep offshore gas project in the Black Sea on Tuesday, Aug. 11, weeks after the NATO country began shooting down Russian drones violating its airspace.
The drones were discovered in Romania’s exclusive economic zone about 90 nautical miles – roughly 167 kilometers – east of the Black Sea port city of Constanța, acting Defense Minister Radu Miruță reported.
A civilian vessel working in the area of the Neptun Deep project first spotted the objects and alerted Romanian authorities. A coast guard vessel carrying Romanian military explosive ordnance disposal specialists was then dispatched to the site.
Romanian personnel found two drifting UAVs along with several additional pieces of wreckage.
Bucharest contacted Ukraine to determine whether the drones could have originated from Ukrainian forces.
“The Ministry of National Defense contacted our Ukrainian partners, who confirmed that these systems did not belong to them,” Miruță reported.
Romanian authorities ordered the drones destroyed in controlled explosions because of the potential danger they posed to vessels and operations around the offshore energy project.
The precise origin of the drones has not yet been established. They were identified as Gerbera-type UAVs, a Russian-produced platform extensively used by Moscow during attacks against Ukraine, including as a decoy, reconnaissance platform and, in some configurations, an attack drone.
Drones found beside strategic European gas project
Their discovery near Neptun Deep adds an energy-security dimension to a growing series of drone incidents around NATO’s Black Sea flank.
Neptun Deep, jointly owned by OMV Petrom and Romanian state-controlled gas producer Romgaz, is one of the European Union’s most important new offshore energy projects.
Production is expected to begin in 2027 and could help make Romania the EU’s largest natural gas producer.
Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey already operate a joint Black Sea task force that has cleared more than 150 drifting mines since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In July, the three countries agreed to expand cooperation to protecting critical maritime infrastructure.
Romania increasingly confronting Russian drones
Tuesday’s operation follows a sharp escalation in Romania’s response to drones.
On July 24, a Romanian F-16 shot down a drone that breached the country’s airspace – the first time Romania had used a fighter jet to destroy such a target since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Investigators subsequently identified that drone as Russian.
Romania downed another drone the following day and a third on July 26, when an F-16 intercepted a UAV over the Black Sea near Sulina. President Nicușor Dan condemned the repeated incursions as “inadmissible and intolerable.”
Romanian authorities said Russian drones had violated the country’s airspace more than 30 times since Moscow began repeatedly attacking Ukrainian Danube ports across the border.