First Damage from Russian Drone on Romanian Territory at Galați (24–25 April); Russian Ambassador Lipaev Summoned

The drone crashed approximately 14 kilometres from the Ukrainian border with its explosive payload intact; Romanian explosive ordnance disposal performed a controlled detonation following the evacuation. No casualties were recorded. Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan publicly condemned the incident and confirmed contact with the Defence Ministry; the Russian Embassy was summoned to receive the Romanian Foreign Ministry's protest. Defence Minister Radu Miruță confirmed Merops integration into Romanian air defence "within days" — the same procurement decision tracked at Capu Midia the previous week.

British Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons deployed under the NATO air-policing mission were scrambled in response to the airspace incursion. Romania did not invoke Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty; the political response was the ambassadorial summons and Bolojan's public condemnation, sitting below the consultative threshold and inside the bilateral diplomatic channel.

The Galați incident is the threshold-crossing event for the eight-week NATO-flank overspill pattern: routine fragment incursions across Romanian, Polish and Latvian airspace since 2022 escalate at Galați into first property damage. The structural reading is that the Romanian counter-UAS file moves from contingency planning to operational reality on the same week the Merops procurement clears, and the integration question — operational versus connected to the national air picture over populated terrain — moves to the immediate term. A pattern that would register again at Galați on 29 May with civilian injuries — first surfaced in Signal No. 47.