The frequent Russian attacks on Ukraine's Danube port infrastructure reverberate among the population on the Romanian side, a population that trusts NATO's support, while the authorities continue to implement cooperation projects funded by the European Union through the Interreg Next programme - Romania - Ukraine, offering a chance for the sustainable development of communities on both banks of the river.

The first Russian drone attacks on ports in Ukrainian cities located on the Chilia Branch of the Danube, which were recorded in 2023, frightened some residents of Chilia Veche commune, and the frequent alarms from the Ukrainian side of the river continue to keep them on alert.

'For the first time, I stayed outside because you couldn't stay in the house. The windows were shaking. The flames were as tall as the church. The whole village was outside. Now, when the RO-ALERT sounds, we are on edge because we don't know where it will fall. If it fell here in the centre, it would destroy everything. I know where to hide, in the basement, but I don't have a basement. So, I go outside, since I don't have another place to go, to avoid the house collapsing on me. We are in constant alert. The RO-ALERT goes off, and 20 minutes later, the machine guns start. You hear the drone like a motorboat. All night long, the sirens scream. One stops, another starts,' Iordache Nane Lesnic, 70 years old, a former bricklayer, told AGERPRES.

He is sitting on a bench in front of a store in the centre of Chilia Veche village, next to Mihai Pocora, and I ask him about the recently rehabilitated church in the locality, the Church of 'Saint Archangels Michael and Gabriel.'

'The church is very beautiful, but it wasn't done as it should have been, given the money spent. What did they do? They plastered it and painted it with washable paint. Nothing more, that's all I see. I go to church rarely. I believe in God, but I don't trust the priests. I trust NATO,' said Iordache Nane Lesnic.

His bench mate, Mihai Pocora, 66 years old, would also say he trusts NATO's protection.

'What do you believe in NATO? We have Americans whom we pay!,' said Mihai Pocora.

He is a fisherman, and like the former bricklayer, now a pensioner, he is skeptical when it comes to peace in Ukraine.

'I don't think there will be peace. I don't think things will get better because everyone wants to take something,' said the fisherman from Chilia Veche.

At the local middle school, the pupils also acknowledge they are affected by the war triggered by Russia.

'At first, I was scared. It was very loud. When there are attacks, I don't stay near the windows or in places where the building might collapse. I didn't go outside when the attacks happened. I stay inside with my mom, in a corner. I still get scared by these things,' said Oana B., an eighth-grade pupil.

Other classmates say they have gotten used to the sounds.

'I've gotten used to hearing the sirens and I'm not as scared as I was at first,' said Irina D.

Like the church, the medical offices renovated in 2004 by the Royal Margareta Foundation of Romania were closed, and a sign on one cabinet door informs locals that 'the doctor comes on Tuesday.'

'This is the dental office. The family doctor comes from Tulcea once a week, and we are grateful for that. We've had periods where we didn't have a doctor in the village,' explained Vasile Dan Dicu, president of the 'Impreuna pentru Chilia' (Together for Chilia) association.

He was born in Roman, Neamt County, but since 2001 has worked at the Chilia Veche section of the Tulcea Maximum Security Penitentiary (PRMS). He founded the non-governmental association in 2020 and, through it and with the help of other associations, organised various activities for the children of the village, became involved in environmental protection projects, and initiated community development projects, one result being the playground located on the outskirts of the village, next to the cemetery.

'This place was defined in the Zonal Urban Plan as the 'Parcul Libertatii' [Freedom Park] but in reality, it was just two slides and two swings. There wasn't even a tree, a bench, or a trash bin. Through a project run with the 'Mai mult verde' [More Green] association, with the mobilisation of citizens, we added benches, a seesaw, rocking horses, spring toys, benches, trash cans, and we created a space for foot tennis or volleyball, a ping pong table. Until then, the children used to go to the cemetery and hold contests reading from the gravestones, counting how many years this old woman or that man lived. Now, when the grandparents go to the cemetery, they can leave their children here,' said Vasile Dicu.

The president of the 'Impreuna pentru Chilia' association says that the war triggered by Russia has changed the community's life.

'Since it started, there hasn't been a day when we haven't talked about the war or the alarms. The poor dogs are confused, they break their chains because animals perceive things differently. Before, we used to talk about fishing, where the fish were biting, what was being caught, tourism, things specific to the area. Now, it's 'did you hear last night?', 'where was the latest bombing?'. Fortunately, recently, nothing has happened here near us,' Dicu said.

Despite the war in Ukraine, local authorities in Chilia Veche still trust the Romanian-Ukrainian development programmes initiated years ago, based on which the old town hall was renovated, audio-video equipment was purchased, traditional costumes were made, and a special boat for emergency interventions was acquired.

'Now, our project for establishing a fire station, with an ATV, UTV, and another intervention vehicle has been approved. So, we are covered both on land and by water. The war has put more pressure on us (local authorities). We are under NATO's umbrella and protected from all points of view, but when a drone is flying 50 metres from you or a drone explodes, you don't feel comfortable. We've gotten used to it, but tourists are very scared,' said Chilia Veche mayor Timur-Alexandru Ciaus.

In his second term as mayor, he has already completed projects totaling about 15 million euros, including an ANL [National Housing Agency] apartment block. He plans to implement more projects in partnership with WWF and the Ivan Patzaichin-Mila 23 Association, some of which have already begun through signed funding contracts. These projects aim to renaturalise around 250 hectares, with an estimated total budget similar to the funds already accessed.

'If the war hadn't started, today we could cross into Kilia (a town on the Ukrainian side of the Danube) because we signed a twinning agreement with the city of Kilia, and we would have had access to the area of up to 50 km across the Ukrainian border with just an ID card. We were thinking that tourists would come to Chilia Veche for a few days, take trips to the lakes, and then spend a day in Ukraine, from Chilia Noua (Kilia) to Cetatea Alba, Vylkove, and Ismail. We would diversify the tourist offer, but now everything is blocked. Access to such tours was available to anyone who stayed at least one day in a guesthouse in Chilia Veche. We had approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Development, we worked for that, but everything is blocked,' said the mayor.

The road to Chilia Veche can be travelled by boat or private car since there is no regular transportation between the village and the Tudor Vladimirescu suburb, primarily for economic reasons. Furthermore, the county road between the two localities is impractical, although the Tulcea County Council, the road administrator, tried to repair it partially, in a context where a section of the road is the subject of a dispute between the public institution and a private company that holds an agricultural concession.

'The road is what will develop the entire Chilia Branch of the Danube. From 2020 to 2024, at my request, several repair works were done. Since it is a road in dispute, the County Council lost funding. I made countless requests to the County Emergency Situations Committee. The only solution for fixing this road is to change its category from county road to strategic road, so it can be funded by the Government through emergency allocations. Mr. Deputy Sergiu Constantinescu even made an intervention in the Romanian Parliament on this issue. But access to this road must be regulated so we know who enters, how many enter, where they are staying, because otherwise we will have many 'outsiders,' people who don't appreciate the delta, come and camp illegally, and after them, the Environmental Guard fines us for the garbage they leave behind,' said Timur-Alexandru Ciaus.

Since 2020, when he took over local administration, the mayor says the number of guesthouses in the village has slightly increased, but the war keeps visitors away. Indeed, the decline in the number of tourists is confirmed by Mihai Mihu, who has worked at a guesthouse for nearly 25 years.

'People who came with their families to the Delta no longer come. No one wants to come to an area where they might live in fear, especially if they have children. Those who are fishermen still come. They know anything can happen anywhere. But when you have kids, you avoid this area. Before, they stayed about a week. Now, no one stays more than three days. Hearing the sirens, they get terrified. You don't want to hear the explosions either,' said Mihai Mihu.

The man added that tourists are informed about the measures they must take when they hear alarms or receive RO-ALERT messages.

'We inform the tourists on how to react when they hear the sirens, but the panic when you hear them for the first time is inevitable, even if you are informed. You get scared by what's happening. We had tourists from Odessa, settled in the country, and when they heard the sirens, they took their children and left. They said their children shouldn't hear such things. Adults know anything can happen anywhere, but children get scared, and for children, anyone would do anything in this world,' said Mihai Mihu.

In the Middle Ages, Chilia Veche, according to some sources, was called 'Lycostomo' by the Greeks ('The Wolf's Mouth'), and was an important fishing and trade centre due to sturgeon fishing. It declined after the establishment of the Danube ports in Galati and Braila, including as markets for selling fish, due to higher demand than in Chilia.

During the communist regime, prisoners, both common criminals and political detainees, were imprisoned in Chilia Veche and Periprava. Without minimum hygiene, medical assistance, or food, they were daily tortured and forced to cut reed from the Delta on ice and work on the dikes of nearby settlements.

After the fall of communism, in the early 1990s, Chilia Veche had about 3,000 inhabitants, who were mainly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry. Currently, the village has 1,751 residents, according to the local authorities.

Data from the Ministry of National Defence shows that since September 5, 2023, 17 drone fragments have been found on the territory of Romania. In one of the cases, Romanian soldiers discovered debris from two drones near the city of Galati, while those in the Republic of Moldova found remains from three drones after the same attack.

The areas where the drone debris was discovered are part of the UNESCO trilateral reserve Romania-Ukraine-Republic of Moldova, whose establishment was publicly promoted in the late 1990s. On June 5, 2000, in Bucharest, representatives from the ministries of the environment from the three countries signed an agreement for cross-border cooperation in the protected natural areas of the Danube Delta, designated as a Biosphere Reserve since 1990, which includes areas in both Romania and Ukraine, as well as the Lower Prut region in the Republic of Moldova.

In recent years, several collaboration projects have been carried out in the Romania-Ukraine Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, financially supported by the European Union. Cross-border cooperation has focused on both environmental protection and the promotion of tourism or the development of public services in the two regions.

With an area of 580,000 hectares, the Danube Delta ranks 22nd among the world's deltas and third in Europe, after the Volga and Kuban deltas. It is one of the largest wetland areas in the world and the most extensive compact reedbed zone globally. With 30 types of ecosystems and 5,429 species of flora and fauna identified to date, 38 of which are new to science, it constitutes a natural gene bank of inestimable value for the universal natural heritage. It is the third most biodiverse area in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef (Australia) and the Galapagos Archipelago (Ecuador). AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Luisiana Bigea; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)