Romania's defense ministry has denied Ukrainian claims that a Russian Kalibr sea-launched cruise missile entered Romanian airspace as part of Moscow's latest mass missile attack on Feb. 10.
In a statement posted on its website, the ministry acknowledged that the missile did enter the airspace of Moldova, reportedly passing just 35 kilometers past the Romanian border on its way to Ukraine.
"The Romanian authorities have applied all standard procedures since the moment the target was detected until the complete clarification of this situation," the statement read.
The Moldovan Defense Ministry confirmed Ukraine’s statement that a missile crossed its airspace on the morning of Feb. 10.
“At 10:18 a.m., a missile crossed the airspace of the Republic of Moldova, over the town of Mocra in the Transnistrian region and, later, over the town of Cosauți in the Soroca district, heading towards Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that it closely monitors the situation in the region.
Following the incident, Moldova summoned the Russian ambassador, Daniel Vodă, a spokesperson for Moldovan Foreign Minister, wrote on Twitter.
“Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu instructed the ministry to urgently summon Russian Ambassador Oleg Vasnetsov in order to point out to the Russian side the unacceptable violation of our airspace by a Russian missile over the sovereign territory of the Republic of Moldova,” the spokesperson said.
Earlier in the day, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said that two Russian Kalibr cruise missiles were reported to have crossed the Ukrainian border with Moldova in the morning on Feb. 10 and then entered Romanian airspace.
Zaluzhnyi also reported that the missiles then entered Ukrainian airspace at the crossing point of the borders of three states.Moscow launched dozens of air- and sea-launched cruise missiles at targets across Ukraine in its latest mass missile strike on Feb. 10.
Eight people were injured in the northeastern Kharkiv Oblast following a mass missile strike, Oleh Syniehubov, the oblast governor, said on Telegram.
Explosions were reported in Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih, Kherson, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Lviv.
