Drone crashes and explodes in Bulgaria near Romanian border (UPD)
- Author:
- Anastasiia Zaikova
- Date:
Police of Moldova
On the morning of August 8, a drone entered Bulgarian airspace and exploded on its territory.
This was stated by Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev, Bulgarian National Radio reports.
The incident occurred at approximately 08:10. The drone crashed about 100 meters from the border with Romania — near the former Kardam checkpoint, which is a kilometer from the Bulgarian compressor station of the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline.
According to Prime Minister Radev, Romanian border guards heard the sound of a droneʼs engine, after which a border patrol in the Bulgarian town of General Toshevo heard a loud explosion. The drone fell in a field of sunflowers, and black smoke rose after the explosion. There were no injuries or damage.
Radev said it was a large aircraft carrying a significant amount of explosives, but its type has not yet been determined. The drone was not detected by radars in either Bulgaria or Romania. The prime minister explained that this was due to its low altitude.
According to Rumen Radev, it is necessary to make radar coverage denser. He also stated that Bulgaria has been delaying the purchase of modern digital three-dimensional radars for years, so the Ministry of Defense is now trying to accelerate their delivery.
Following the incident, Bulgaria will tighten control over drones. Additional forces, including border police, will be deployed along the border with Turkey to the border with Romania to counter drones.
UPD (21:21): Bulgaria has said that the drone that exploded near a gas pipeline was likely Ukrainian. It is a Maya decoy drone, The Sofia Globe reports. At the same time, the countryʼs Defense Ministry stressed that it does not consider the incident intentional.
- In July, the Romanian army spent almost €1.5 million in a few days to shoot down three Russian drones that violated the countryʼs airspace. Now Romania is looking for cheaper ways to shoot down Russian drones.
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