Romania requested the urgent meeting after a Russian drone entered its airspace on Friday night, hitting an apartment building in the eastern city of Galaţi. Two residents, a woman and a child, were injured.
“Last Friday, A dangerous incident crystallized our frequent warnings about the possible spillover of war.”said Kayoko Gotoh, director of the UN peace and political departments.
He noted that while this was not the first violation of Romanian airspace by an armed drone since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the first. First time that an incident of this type causes victims.
‘A worrying trend’
It also “came on the heels of a worrying trend of drone incursions into the airspace and territorial waters of countries bordering Ukraine or the Russian Federation,” he added.
In the last 12 months, incidents have been reported in Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Kazakhstan and Belarus, as well as three countries in the wider region: Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.
“The Galaţi incident comes amid a sharp escalation of large-scale missile and drone attacks by the armed forces of the Russian Federation against towns and cities in Ukraine, which has resulted in an increasing number of civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure,” he said.
“There has also been a marked increase in Ukrainian attacks against military, energy and industrial infrastructure in the Russian Federation, which have reportedly resulted in increasing numbers of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure.”
Fears about nuclear safety
Gotoh recalled that the meeting was held a week after UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that the dangerous trajectory of escalation and intensification risks getting out of control, and “the course must change.”
Furthermore, “the risk of calculation errors is particularly dangerous for the safety of nuclear facilities”, something that has increased in recent days.
On May 30, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed that a drone collided with a turbine building at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, causing a hole in the wall. This marked the First attack of this type within the plant perimeter in two years..
Concluding her remarks, Ms. Gotoh emphasized that “amid heightened tensions, it is incumbent upon all involved to act responsibly and refrain from any action that could further destabilize the situation.”
He underlined the UN’s support for dialogue efforts to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in Ukraine “that contributes to a more stable regional and international environment.”
Russia rejects accusation and calls for an “objective” investigation
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said Romania “hastily convened” the meeting and “immediately leveled unfounded and biased accusations” against his country.
“We believe that the main goal of today’s meeting is to satisfy the demand of Western countries to generate another wave of anti-Russian publicity in the media at any cost,” he said.
He told the council that Russian forces had carried out operations against Ukrainian military infrastructure that night in response to “terrorist attacks carried out by the kyiv regime.”
The attacks targeted facilities in the port of Reni and the Odessa region, through which Western countries supply military goods to Ukraine.
He said that, according to Romania, there was an impact in Galaţi that allegedly involved a Russian Geran-2 drone that crashed into the roof of an apartment building. These drones have a payload of approximately 50 kilograms of explosives.
“If such a drone had hit, as claimed, the roof of a building… the roof would have been completely destroyed,” he said.
Nebenzya called for a “thorough, objective and depoliticized” investigation into all the circumstances.
Romania: Climbing should not be “the new normal”
Romanian Foreign Minister Oana-Silvia Ţoiu stressed that “the seriousness of this moment cannot be underestimated.”
This was the first time that his country convened an emergency meeting of the Security Council on an issue of direct interest to its security.
“We have a joint responsibility not only to draw a line, but to make sure we don’t cross it,” he said.
“It is imperative that the Council addresses this unnecessary escalation by the Russian Federation in its war of aggression… We must not consider this current escalation as the new normal.”
Ukraine criticizes Russian “denial and distortion”
The representative of Ukraine commented that the Russian ambassador “continues to sing the same old song… and rely on the well-worn patterns of denial and distortion.”
He said Ukraine has full confidence in the Romanian authorities’ conclusion “that this was a Russian drone and nothing more.”
He added that “what happened in Romania was not a unique case and must be taken seriously.”