Ukraine’s supreme commander said two Russian missiles entered Romanian airspace on Friday before entering Ukraine.
The Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said that two Kalibr missiles fired from the Black Sea crossed the Romanian border. However, Romania later denied this.
The Romanian Defense Ministry said: “The surveillance system of the Romanian Air Force on Friday detected an aerial target, most likely a cruise missile, launched from a Russian ship in the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula.
“The closest approach trajectory to the target to the airspace of Romania was recorded by radar about 35 km northeast of the border.”
A Russian missile crossing the Romanian border could have escalated the war, since Romania is a member of NATO.
Mr. Zaluzhny’s accusation came as Russia dropped strategic bombers, assassin drones and missiles on Ukraine early Friday in military strikes that Kiev says come days before the anniversary of the Russian invasion.
What is NATO?
NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and is also known as the North Atlantic Alliance.
The head office is located in Brussels, Belgium.
NATO currently has 30 members: 27 in Europe, two in North America and one in Eurasia.
Here are the countries, along with the year they joined:
- Albania (2009)
- Belgium (1949)
- Bulgaria (2004)
- Canada (1949)
- Croatia (2009)
- Czech Republic (1999)
- Denmark (1949)
- Estonia (2004)
- France (1949)
- Germany (1955)
- Greece (1952)
- Hungary (1999)
- Iceland (1949)
- Italy (1949)
- Latvia (2004)
- Lithuania (2004)
- Luxembourg (1949)
- Montenegro (2017)
- Netherlands (1949)
- North Macedonia (2020)
- Norway (1949)
- Poland (1999)
- Portugal (1949)
- Romania (2004)
- Slovakia (2004)
- Slovenia (2004)
- Spain (1982)
- Turkey (1952)
- United Kingdom (1949)
- USA (1949)
NATO was officially founded in April 1949 in Washington DC.
It grew out of the Dunkirk Treaty signed by Britain and France in March 1947 as an alliance against a possible German or Soviet attack after World War II.
The stated goal is to ensure the freedom and security of its members by political and military means.
It uses a system of collective security in which independent member states agree to defend each other in response to an outside attack. It can also work with external forces.
Why is Romania important in NATO?
NATO operates a system of collective security in which its independent member states agree to defend each other in response to outside attack.
This means that if Russia attacked a NATO member like Romania, it would be at war with all 30 NATO countries.
A missile that flew into Romanian territory could be interpreted as such an attack and could therefore lead to an escalation of the war.
What is the latest news about the war in Ukraine?
On Friday, Kremlin forces focused their bombardment on Ukraine’s industrial east, specifically the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, part of the industrial Donbass region where fighting has been the most intense of late, the Ukrainian military said. Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian troops there since 2014.
But shelling continued, including on the capital Kyiv and Lvov near Ukraine’s western border with Poland. It also hit critical infrastructure in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in the northeast. Seven people were injured there, two of them seriously, Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of the region, said.
Air raid sirens wailed across much of the country. The Ukrainian Air Force said its air defense systems destroyed five Kalibr missiles and five Iranian-made killer drones.
The bombings may be an attempt by Russia to weaken Ukraine’s defenses in anticipation of a ground attack Moscow says it is planning in the east, where the Kremlin is trying to secure illegally annexed territories and where it says its rule is welcome.
In the Donetsk region, local Ukrainian officials said the Russian army had deployed additional troops and launched offensive operations.
“Daily escalation, Russian attacks are intensifying throughout the region,” Governor Pavel Kirilenko said.
In the Lugansk region, the Russian army is trying to break through the defense of Ukraine, said the governor of the region Serhiy Gaidai.
“The situation is deteriorating, the enemy is constantly attacking, the Russians are moving a large number of heavy equipment and aircraft,” he said.
The positions on the battlefield had changed little in a few weeks.
Source: I News
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.