A Spanish F-18 fighter jet on a NATO air-policing mission Sunday shot down a drone that had illegally entered Romanian airspace.

The drone was detected by radar about 24 kilometers north of the eastern city of Galați after entering Romania from Moldova. Having established radar contact, the fighter jet was authorized to shoot it down at 5:01 a.m. Authorities said debris from the destroyed aircraft had fallen in an uninhabited area between two villages.

Martin O’Donnell, spokesperson for NATO operation headquarters, said additional details regarding Sunday’s incident remained under investigation but that the drone “appears to be Russian.”

“The Ministry of National Defence is constantly monitoring the situation and informs in real time the allied structures about such events,” the ministry added in a statement.

It is the fourth drone shot down by NATO over Romania since the beginning of 2026. In July, Romanian F-16s downed three Russian drones that breached the country’s airspace — the first such interceptions after dozens of incursions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In May, a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building in Galați, injuring two people.

Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine traded strikes over the weekend. Russian forces launched missile and drone attacks on Kyiv early Sunday, sparking fires in at least two districts and injuring three people, according to the city’s military administration.

Ukrainian drones also struck the Moscow region overnight in what the regional governor Andrei Vorobyov described as one of the largest attacks to target the area, killing an 83-year-old man.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu has blamed Russia’s war in Ukraine for a recent drone crash in the southeast of her country.

A drone crashed and exploded in the village of Crocmaz on Sunday, causing a fire that damaged several properties but caused no casualties. After conducting preliminary analysis on the fragments, local police said it could be a “missile-like drone.”

“I strongly condemn the latest violation of our airspace,” Sandu wrote on X, adding: “This is a direct consequence of Russia’s war, and it endangers us all.”

Sandu said that the “risk to human life in our region is real and growing. It must stop.”

The affected village is close to southwestern Ukraine, particularly the Odesa region, which came under a heavy missile and drone attack by Russia on the same day.

Moldovan police said that to date, no other aircraft of this type have been found on Moldovan territory and research is continuing to establish “the exact type and origin of the aircraft as well as the circumstances of the incident.”

Last week, local police discovered wreckage from a Russian Geran-2-type drone near the village of Văleni in southern Moldova.

After the incidents, Moldova’s foreign ministry recalled its ambassador from Russia for consultations.