Unidentified drone explodes near gas pipeline at Bulgarian-Romanian border, Kyiv to launch inquiry
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An unidentified drone exploded on Bulgarian territory near an international gas pipeline on Aug. 8, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said.
The drone entered Bulgarian airspace from Romania and exploded about 100 meters within Bulgaria, approximately 1 kilometer away from a compressor station on the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, according to Radev. The UAV was not detected in either Romanian or Bulgarian airspace.
No casualties or damage to any buildings resulted from the explosion.
The Bulgarian Defense Ministry later said that its initial analysis of the wreckage suggests the drone is a "Maya" decoy drone, widely used by Ukrainian forces.
"At the moment, there is no reason to believe that the incident was intentional," the ministry said.
Kyiv responded to the report by saying it had not targeted Bulgaria and was open to a joint investigation to determine the cause of the incident.
"We are in close contact with the Bulgarian side to clarify the circumstances," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said. "We can say with certainty that the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not intentionally direct any assets toward Bulgaria."
Tykhyi added that the root cause of any drone incursion into countries bordering Ukraine is Russia's continued war.
The explosion in Bulgaria follows a series of drone incursions in Romania this summer. Romanian air defenses shot down three Russian UAVs in three days between July 24 and 26, prompting Bucharest to summon its Russian ambassador.
The country had also logged multiple other incursions throughout the full-scale war. Most dramatically, a Russian drone struck a residential building in the city of Galați on May 29, injuring two people.
Ukrainian drones have also strayed into other countries, including Latvia and Estonia.
Both Ukraine and Russia use complex networks of jamming and navigation spoofing devices to defend against mass drone and missile attacks on their territory, which can cause some of the drones to fly off course.
