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Moldovan police on Wednesday dispatched bomb disposal experts to an area several miles from the Ukrainian border after residents took a grounded drone home, mistaking it for a “toy.”
When police arrived in Pepeni, in the Singelai district, about 100 kilometers north of the capital Chisinau, they found that the drone, which had been discovered four days earlier, had already been stripped of its parts.
The police had been tipped off by Mayor Pepeni. Video footage posted on social media by city hall showed the drone on top of a trailer attached to a small tractor commonly used in rural communities.
“A citizen thought it was a toy and brought it to Pepeni district,” Mayor Oleg Chernei said in the video. “As soon as the person appeared within the boundaries of the commune, I identified him and reported him to the state authorities.”
Police said the drones do not contain explosives and do not pose a danger, and urged the public not to “touch or attempt to transport fallen drones or similar objects.”
Authorities have not said where the drone came from. They said it was a Gerbera-type drone typically used for improvised attacks and surveillance. Russia has used them in Ukraine before.
The incident is the latest in a series of airspace violations and drone detections on Moldovan territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Last week, Moldova’s airspace was violated multiple times by unmanned aerial vehicles during Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
And in February, two drones exploded over Moldova after a cross-border attack on a Ukrainian port.
On high alert
Europe has been on high alert following an unprecedented number of drone flights into NATO airspace in September, with European leaders agreeing to build a “drone wall” along its borders to better detect, track and intercept drones that violate European airspace.
NATO military officials announced in November that a new U.S. anti-drone system had been deployed to the alliance’s eastern flank.
And in response to the violation of Polish airspace, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announced the creation of the Eastern Sentry program, aimed at deterring further Russian aggression.
Some European officials have described the incident as Russia testing NATO’s response, raising questions about how well prepared the alliance is against a potential threat from Russia.
The Kremlin has dismissed as “baseless” claims that Russia is involved in some of the unidentified drone flights in Europe.
Additional sources of information • AP