Romania Calls for Ukrainian Naval Drones to Self-Destruct Near Its Waters

Romania wants Ukrainian naval drones to automatically self-destruct before entering its territorial waters in the Black Sea.

Romanian Defense Minister Radu Miruță stated this, according to Defense Romania.

In a television interview, he mentioned that he plans to ask Ukraine to equip its naval drones with a self-destruct mechanism that would activate as they approach Romanian territorial waters.

According to him, it is necessary for Ukrainians to program their naval drones so that, in the event of a loss of control, the drone’s coordinates would prevent it from entering Romanian territorial waters and cause it to self-destruct 12 nautical miles from the coast.

“If you suddenly lose them in the Black Sea, when they approach Romanian territorial waters within 12 nautical miles, the controller operating the drone must program it to self-destruct automatically…” the Minister explained his view.

Radu Miruță went on to say that he wants to propose to “our neighbors in Ukraine, who are engaged in such a fierce war caused by Russia, to guarantee that all drones they launch into the Black Sea are programmed using this technical measure.”

Drone explosion in Constanța

The decision to approach Ukraine on this issue came after a Ukrainian unmanned surface vessel (USV) that had drifted to a dock exploded in the Romanian port of Constanța on June 5.

The Ukrainian Navy stated that the drone lost control under the influence of Russian electronic warfare measures and ended up near the Romanian coast.

In connection with this, Romania sent Ukraine 10 questions as part of its investigation. The Minister asked the Ukrainian side to cooperate.

The questions concern when control of the naval drone was lost, whether communication with it was lost, and whether its location was known after contact was lost.

When did it become known that the drone’s signal had been jammed? What communication existed between the drones? What was the explosive payload? Did only one drone carry an explosive payload?

He also stated that Romania is awaiting answers to these questions, but that “we will not accept an answer that we do not consider sufficiently substantiated; if necessary, we will verify the answers against the data we have.”