New alert over flying object in NATO member Romania

A suspicious flying object has again appeared in the airspace of NATO member state Romania, the Defence Ministry in Bucharest reported on Saturday.

NATO airspace surveillance deployed four F-16 and F-18 fighter jets from the Spanish and Romanian Air Forces to observe the situation.

This was the second such incident in two days in Ukraine's neighbouring country. In both cases, it initially remained unclear whether the objects involved were Russian drones.

The NATO military alliance had been informed of the new incident, the reports said.

The Romanian army's radar system registered the object during the night over the Black Sea, around 45 kilometres from the Romanian coast.

It flew about 19 kilometres into Romanian airspace and disappeared from radar near the village of Cogealac, about 75 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, according to the military. The fighter jets deployed were unable to make visual contact.

There were no immediate indications of a possible crash site in the area, but this would be investigated further, the Defence Ministry said.

After the first incident on Thursday, NATO accused Russia of violating its member's airspace. However, the alliance assumed that no attack was intended.