Coordination against Russian attacks

The Romanian army and local authorities on the Ukrainian border are coordinating efforts amid Russian attacks in the region

Bogdan Matei, 28.09.2023, 13:50

The countries neighbouring Russia-invaded Ukraine are
not safe from the war spill-over. Polish experts have recently concluded that
the missile that killed 2 people in a farm in southern Poland last November had
been fired by the Ukrainians. The missile had a range of 75 to 90 km, the media
in Warsaw report, and at that time
Russian troops were positioned in a place from where they could not have hit
the Polish farm.

The missile hitting
NATO-member Poland has fuelled fears that the war in Ukraine might spiral into
a broader conflict, through the activation of the Allies’ mutual defence
clause, under which an attack against one NATO member state is an attack
against all.

In turn, Romania, which
has an approx. 650-km long border with Ukraine, has had constant consultations
with NATO with respect to developments on this border, ever since several drone pieces, most
likely Russian, were found on Romanian territory, in the Danube Delta.

The most recent incident took place early
this week on the Ukrainian banks of the Danube, near Orlovka, where drones fell
near a Romanian ferry leaving for Isaccea. After
this new episode, the Army chief of staff organised a video call with
the local public authorities in the counties of Brăila, Constanţa, Galaţi and
Tulcea, all of them along the Danube River, in the context of the Russian
Federation’s attacks on Ukrainian Danube ports.

According to a news release issued by the
Defence Ministry, the video call was intended to optimise inter-institutional
coordination. The agenda included a presentation of the security situation, of
the Army’s public communication process, steps to prepare the defence of the
local population, economy and territory, and the responsibilities assigned to
the various institutions in the national defence system.

The Russian army frequently targets the
Danube ports of Izmail and Reni, in the south of Bessarabia, the eastern Romanian territory annexed
by Stalin’s Soviet Union following an ultimatum in 1940, and incorporated into
Ukraine, as a successor state, in 1991. These ports are a major gateway for
Ukrainian grain exports, after in July Russia pulled out of a deal allowing
grain transit via the Black Sea.

Reni is some 13 km from the Romanian city
of Galați, while Izmail is located on the Chilia distributary of the Delta,
which serves as a border between Romania and Ukraine. Both ports are critical
for commodity transport on the Danube.

The Romanian diplomacy firmly asked the
Russians to cease the repeated attacks against Ukrainian population and
civilian infrastructure, and to comply with the rules of international law,
including Romania’s sovereignty over the airspace above its territory,
including its territorial sea. (AMP)