In some parts of Europe, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine can feel like a distant threat. But in Romania, that war is right next door and increasingly dangerous.
In Galati, there is an apartment block with a hole in the roof that proves it.
Residents have just begun returning to check on their homes, after an attack drone slammed into the building early on Friday as dozens of people slept.
It sparked a fire and panic.
The flat below was badly damaged, and a woman and her teenage son remain in hospital with bruises and minor burns.
But it’s clear the consequences of this strike could have been far worse: the drone hit the lift shaft on the roof, which absorbed much of the blast.
“It was really very terrifying,” says Costel Patrichi, a resident who’s in charge of the building. “But if the drone had hit the side, it could have destroyed a whole floor or more.”
He describes how his phone buzzed with an alert that morning just before 02:00, warning of the danger: a drone was approaching from the Ukrainian border a few miles away.
Moments later came the bang.
“They told us we are protected by Nato, not to worry. But look where we are now!” Costel tells me, frustrated like many that Romania’s air force couldn’t intercept the drone.
When a Ukrainian drone targeting northern Russia was recently knocked off course into Estonia, it was a Romanian fighter jet there that shot it down – part of Nato’s quick reaction force.
Here, though, pilots only had moments to react before the weapon was over a built-up area. At that point, interception was too risky.
“Now I’m afraid. If go back to my flat tonight, I will sleep with fear. Because this could happen again,” Costel admits.
It is the same fear that Ukrainians endure nightly as Russia launches ever more attack drones at its neighbour. Very often, they smash into residential areas, destroying homes and taking lives.
Now Romania, a member of both Nato and the EU, has been hit.
It is the most serious incident of its kind in this country since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.
True to form, Russian President Vladimir Putin claims there is no evidence this was a Russian drone.
But Romania has been very clear: it was a Geran-2, otherwise called a Shahed, and it was Russian.
“It’s sure, because we had another one four or five weeks ago that didn’t explode. We compared and they are completely identical,” Romania’s President Nicosur Dan told the BBC World Service.
The drones are used to target Ukrainian ports on the other side of the river Danube that are vitally important to Ukraine’s grain exports.
On Friday, Romania tracked a swarm of 43 of them as they travelled from east to west.
“One hit by the Ukrainian army changed direction and passed to Romanian territory. That is sure,” Dan said.
Romania’s Nato allies have called Russia’s conduct “reckless” and stressed that Moscow’s war of aggression was to blame for what happened.
In Washington, though, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ignored reporters’ requests to comment.
And there is clearly caution in the response, as well as condemnation.
No-one is accusing Moscow of mounting a deliberate attack on Romania.
And whilst government sources in Bucharest tell us they considered invoking Article 4 of the Nato treaty, which would trigger an emergency meeting, that idea was rejected to avoid creating panic.
The next potential step would have been Article 5: the mutual defence clause, under which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
That’s not on the table.
Instead, Romania has shut down a Russian consulate in the port city of Constanta as a “warning”, according to its president. Dan said the next move in the “diplomatic hierarchy of measures” would be to kick out the Russian ambassador.
But for now, he’s going nowhere.
Romania has called for Nato to move faster with a pledge to transfer more military equipment to this stretch of its eastern edge.
The government is already acquiring drones of its own and has plans to develop others in co-operation with Ukrainian companies.
The EU was already working on a new set of sanctions against Moscow.
But the risk of this war escalating and expanding has rarely felt greater – and the people we met in Galati feel very vulnerable.
“This was insane, it happened right in the middle of town,” says Adrian, after checking his own family’s flat in the building that was hit.
“No-one feels safe now.”
For that, he blames Russia and its president.
“But I don’t think the sanctions are enough,” Adrian adds. “Because they could take everything from Russia, and they would still attack.”
Additional reporting by Mircea Barbu
