Ukraine has accused Russia of sending two cruise missiles through the airspace of NATO member Romania. Despite Bucharest’s denial, Zelensky took the floor to reaffirm his chief of staff’s accusations.
Romania has denied the assertions of the head of the Ukrainian army, according to which two Russian cruise missiles would have crossed the airspace of this country member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). “The aerial surveillance system detected a projectile fired from a Russian boat located in the Black Sea, near Crimea,” the Romanian Defense Ministry said in a statement on February 10.
This craft flew over southern Ukraine before entering Moldova and re-entering Ukrainian airspace, according to the same source, “but at no time did it enter space Romanian air force”. The Defense adds that the projectile came closest to “about 35 km” from the Romanian border.
Two MiG-21 fighter jets from the Romanian army, but operating under the command of the Atlantic Alliance, were directed towards northern Romania, which made it possible to “quickly clarify the situation”, explained the ministry.
Despite Romanian denial, Zelensky persists
In the morning, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valeri Zalouzhny, had affirmed that “two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles”, fired “from the Black Sea” would have “crossed Romanian airspace at approximately 08:33 GMT” before to enter Ukrainian airspace.
It would have been the first violation of the airspace of a NATO member country by Russian missiles since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine . “A potentially incendiary action that could have put pressure on NATO to respond,” says The Washington Post in particular .
For his part, despite the Romanian denial, Volodymyr Zelensky affirmed in a speech that “several Russian missiles traveled through Moldovan and Romanian airspace”. In mid-November, the Ukrainian president hastily accused Russia of being behind the firing of a missile whose fall killed two people in the Polish border village of Przewodow. “Firing missiles on NATO territory is a Russian attack on collective security,” Volodymyr Zelensky said at the time, calling for “action.” Faced with the caution of his allies, who doubt the Russian origin of the shooting, the Ukrainian president had persisted in his accusations .
source: maliweb