NATO member Romania's MoD says Russian missile 'did not enter airspace'

As Ukraine claimed that at least two Kalibr missiles crossed over into neighbouring NATO member Romania as well as Moldova, Romania’s Defence Ministry on Friday responded saying that the missile did not infringe the Romanian air space. The presumably Russian missile came "within 22 miles of the border of Romania" prompting the Romanian Air Force to scramble two fighter jets that were conducting military exercises under NATO command, the Romanian Defence Ministry said in the official release. 

The development is the second when Russia's missile was speculated to have entered NATO's territory, which could escalate the war between North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Russian Federation. Had the missile landed in Romania, it would lead to invoking Article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty, which means a collective defense in the event of aggression by all NATO members. Article 5 of its founding treaty, mentions that NATO allies see “an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all”. 

Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty obliges that any NATO member country may request consultations between allies whenever they believe that "the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties (is) threatened."  Since NATO was created in 1949, Article 4 has been invoked seven times. 

In November 2022, as the Russia-Ukraine war entered day 266, Ukraine officials claimed that a “Russian-made" missile had entered and struck a Polish town, leading to talks of NATO’s Article 4 and 5 invocation. Polish president tweeted a message that read: “President @AndrzejDuda: I informed @jensstoltenberg, @POTUS, @RishiSunak and @OlafScholz that our ambassador will participate in the North Atlantic Council and that it is highly probable that he will request the activation of Article 4, i.e. allied consultations.”

Russian missile came at 'closest point' of Romanian air space

On Friday, however, as Ukraine’s armed forces General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi claimed that two Kalibr missiles violated Moldova's and Romania's airspace, the Romanian Defence Ministry issued a statement, saying that its Air Force surveillance system detected the aerial target launched by a Russian Federation’s ship, navigating in the Black Sea, nearby the Crimean Peninsula that was some miles from its border. “It was most likely a cruise missile” Romania noted, adding that the missile violated the Republic of Moldova’s air space before re-entering Ukraine.

“The closest point of the aerial target’s trajectory from the Romanian air space was recorded by the radar systems to be at almost 35 kilometers North-East from the border,” noted the Romanian Defence Ministry.

Romanian Defence adhered to all military standard procedures since the moment the target was detected until the situation de-escalated, said Romania’s ministry. At 10.38 a.m., two Romanian Air Forces’ MiG-21 LanceR Aircraft of the NATO-led Air Policing Service that were conducting the drills “were redirected to the Northern area of Romania in order to increase the reaction options,” the latter stated.“After approximately two minutes, the situation was clarified and the two aircraft resumed their initial mission,” Romania’s Defence Ministry clarified, adding that its military is monitoring the situation in cooperation with the Allied forces, the national air space.