Romania's interim Foreign Affairs Minister Oana Toiu told the UN Security Council on Monday that Romania has a shared responsibility to draw a line and not allow it to be moved, in the context of the incident in Galati, in which a Russian drone crashed into a residential building and injured two people.

Oana Toiu underscored that this is the first time in Romania's 70 years of UN membership that the country has requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council over a situation directly affecting its national territory.

'We have managed to be a security partner for the region. And we want to see this into the future. But we do understand now more than we have done it before that in order for this to happen, in order for this to be without risk, we do need to do everything that is within our responsibility, individually and collectively, to help stop the war at our border and to find a diplomatic pathway in that direction. We have a joint responsibility not just to draw a line, but to make sure we do not move that line as people would want sometime,' Toiu stated.

The Foreign Minister warned that these actions should not be treated as ordinary incidents and these escalations should not be considered the new normal.

'The Security Council is the most powerful tool of the international community, a common tool that we have to prevent the perception of a normalization of the abuse. We can and should not move the line we have drawn. We should not consider these current escalations as the new normal. On the night of 28 to 29 of May, a Russian drone carrying explosives violated the Romanian airspace at 02:00 am. Our military analysis shows that this drone was initially part of a swarm of drones used in an overnight attack against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on the Danube and traveled for four minutes within our territory and, eventually, crashed on the 10th floor of a residential apartment building in the city of Galati, Romania,' the Interim Foreign Affairs Minister added.

She pointed out that the site where the drone crashed is located near the border between Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.

'Since the beginning of the war of aggression against Ukraine, Russian drones entered numerous times the Romanian airspace, as well as the airspace of other partners in Central and Eastern Europe, in breach of international law and the UN Charter,' the Romanian official said, adding that in Romania's case, this year alone more than 30 such incursions occurred with increasing frequency, however what makes this incident different this time is that it is the first time since the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine that Romanian citizens have required medical care and that goods belonging to Romanian citizens have been significantly damaged.

Interim Minister Toiu added that, following the impact, a mother and her child were injured and required medical care, while the fire caused by the explosion produced significant damage to the building, which was temporarily evacuated. Oana Toiu said that Romanian military analyses show beyond any doubt that the drone which crashed in Galati is a Geran-2 type, of Russian origin.

'This undeniable conclusion is backed by clear findings of a technical report issued by our special investigators and presented to the public by our President, on the basis of a consistent set of technical evidence,' the minister said. She mentioned that apart from an inscription in Cyrillic characters of the name Geran-2 identified on the recovered fragments, the report concluded that electronic components, navigation systems, control modules and engine construction elements show similarities to those of other Geran-2 drones previously recovered in Romania and identified as being manufactured in the Russian Federation. The report also shows that the manufacturing markings, technical descriptions, construction features and materials used follow the same technological process.

In her intervention, Oana Toiu reaffirmed Romania's support for Ukraine and backed the need to maintain diplomatic pressure on Russia, saying that security guarantees for Kyiv are essential for achieving lasting peace in the region.

The Romanian official said that Ukrainians' courage, their sacrifice, their capacity for innovation and their resilience deserve respect and support. She added that we must continue to increase diplomatic pressure on the aggressor so that it stops, mentioning that Romania has been, for a long time, a reliable country and a security provider in its region and beyond.
Oana Toiu underscored that this irresponsible behaviour and blatant disregard for human suffering not only violates the UN Charter and international law, including international humanitarian law, but also deliberately ignores diplomatic efforts led by those who have sought to bring peace closer. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Oana Ghita; EN - writing by: Rodica State)