Dude, you won't believe what just went down! I was chilling at Fane's terrace, sipping a beer and watching the game, when bam - Mioara calls me in a panic saying she got a RO-ALERT on her phone. 'Bro, what did you do to get the Russians surrounding us?' she says. Well, don't ask me, ask the Defense guys! Let me break it down for you.
On Wednesday, July 1, around 1:20 PM, Army radars detected an aerial target 30 kilometers from Vâlcov, Ukraine - right next to us. The Military Center immediately notified IGSU, and at 2:09 PM, the RO-ALERT hit phones in northern Tulcea county. That's it, bro, we're on high alert! At 2:10 PM, two British Eurofighter Typhoons from the 86th Fetești Base and one of our IAR 330 Puma helicopters took off to see what the hell was going on. Lucky for us, it was nothing - the drones didn't enter our airspace, nothing crashed on our heads. That's what the Ministry of Defense says, at least this time.
But it's not the first time, man! On Saturday night into Sunday, at exactly 2:16 AM, another RO-ALERT. The Russians launched a new wave of drones over southern Ukraine, 22 kilometers northeast of Vâlcov. Again, the Eurofighters from Borcea took off at 2:19 AM and stayed in the air until 3:37 AM when the alarm was lifted. And again, nothing in our airspace. But are you sleeping easy? I sure ain't. 'Cause if one of those falls on our heads, who's paying?
See, for months now I keep hearing it's happening. The Russians are bombing Ukrainian infrastructure near the Danube, and we, the good boys, just issue alerts and scramble jets. So far no breach, but how long can this last? And so, in a country where you're already struggling with bread prices and BMW payments, now you've got this worry too - that a Russian drone might land in Uncle Gheorghe's garden. That's Romania for you: some watch war movies, we live them firsthand. I'm gonna go tell Mioara to stop panicking, 'cause that's what NATO is for. But until then, I'd better grab another beer and pray my phone doesn't ring again.
