Ukraine-Russia war latest: Romania scrambles jets after ‘drone incursion’ as Zelensky warns conflict is expanding

The Romanian defence ministry scrambled two F-16 fighter jets on Sunday after detecting a drone breaching the country's airspace, just days after Poland confirmed it detected a Russian drone incursion.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the drone breached about 10 kilometres into Romanian territory and operated in Nato airspace for around 50 minutes.

He warned that the incident was “an obvious expansion” of Russia’s war beyond Ukraine’s borders, and once again called for tougher sanctions against Moscow.

"Romania condemns Russia's behaviour and takes the necessary measures to protect its sovereignty and security," Romanian foreign minister Toiu Oana wrote on X. Romania’s move comes after Nato announced plans to beef up the defence of Europe's eastern flank, and the US has vowed to defend "every inch” of its ally as Russian drones breached Polish airspace last week.

The US has joined other Nato countries to express concern about Russian drones entering Poland, accusing Moscow of violating international law and the founding UN Charter.

But on Saturday, Donald Trump said he would only introduce new sanctions if Nato countries stopped using Russian oil.

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