Romanian radar picks up two likely drone signals breaching territory, ministry says

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania's radar systems detected two separate signals, likely from drones, breaching its national airspace that scrambled fighter jets did not see, the country's defence ministry said late on Wednesday, in a third such incident in less than a week.

The two signals were picked up by radar less than one hour apart flying above the southeastern counties of Constanta and Tulcea, the latter bordering Ukraine across the Danube River.

Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to monitor the small flying objects – most likely separate drones - from the air but the planes did not make visual contact with either before the radar lost their signals, the ministry said in a statement.

Two drones were detected by radar systems breaching Romanian air space on two separate days last week, with fighter jets unable to see them and no crash sites identified, and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu told reporters the incidents might have been examples of cyber interference.

The European Union and NATO state, which shares a 650-km (400-mile) border with Ukraine, has had Russian drone fragments fall onto its territory repeatedly over the past year as Moscow attacks Ukrainian port infrastructure.

While most of the fragments landed in Romania after being destroyed by Ukrainian air defences, worries of escalation increased in September when both Romania and Latvia had their airspace breached by Russian drones.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Jamie Freed)