Romanian and Ukrainian CBRN decontamination teams, alongside French explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) specialists, jointly managed a simulated critical incident at an LPG depot on Friday as part of the international civil protection exercise 'Crossflood.'

'After days of intense actions and complex scenarios, national and international forces are concluding their response missions and moving to responsibility handover and demobilization procedures. Field operations have ended. Activity is shifting to the analysis rooms, where evaluator and trainer teams will conduct the first rapid feedback sessions directly with the intervention structures,' an Emergency Management Department release informs on Friday.

Final actions continued on the Siret River, including a scenario simulating a landmine incident managed by the Ukrainian team. Rescue boat crews from Austria, Czechia and Romania completed a final virtual reality (VR) training session.

Next, activity moved into briefing rooms, where evaluators and trainers held rapid feedback sessions directly with intervention units. The morning's key moment was the 11:30 authority-transfer ceremony, in which European experts (EUCPT) returned operational coordination to national authorities, followed by the official closure of the emergency scenario.

As of 15:00, all participants gathered for the operational evaluation session (After Action Review), during which the main lessons learned throughout this extensive interoperability test were extracted.

International forces will begin withdrawing to their countries of origin starting Saturday, as the foreign contingents and technical assets participating in the 'Crossflood' exercise will move in convoys.

'We remind citizens that the presence on public roads of emergency vehicles and intervention equipment is exclusively part of the logistical operations to conclude this large-scale training exercise. The situation is returning fully to normal, with the population not exposed to any kind of danger. We also extend our thanks to citizens for their patience, understanding and support provided during the conduct of this exercise,' the cited source states. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Alexandru Florea; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)