The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the closure of the Romanian consulate in St Petersburg, and the Romanian Consul-General was declared persona non grata.
According to a statement from the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry, on 25 June, the Romanian Ambassador to Moscow, Cristian Istrate, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry and presented with a note from Moscow.
“This measure is a response to Bucharest’s completely unfounded withdrawal of consent for the Russian Consulate-General in Constanța to operate and the declaration of its head as persona non grata,” the ministry added.
On 29 May, Romanian President Nicușor Dan announced that Romania was closing the Russian consulate in Constanța and expelling the Russian consul-general. This decision followed an incident in which a Russian drone crashed into a multi-storey building in Galac, near the border with Ukraine.
At dawn on 29 May, the Romanian Ministry of Defence reported that a Russian drone had entered Romanian airspace during the night and crashed into a multi-storey building in Galac, near the border with Ukraine, causing a fire to break out on the roof of the building. Local authorities reported at least two people injured.
The Romanian authorities noted that the drone which struck a residential block in Galac on the night of 29 May was a Russian ‘Geran-2’ drone.
Nicushor Dan emphasised that the fact that such a device struck a block of flats in Romania, causing injuries and material damage, is a particularly serious matter, and that Russia alone bears responsibility for this.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Russian media that the drone could allegedly have been Ukrainian. According to the state news agency TASS, citing his remarks, Moscow is allegedly prepared to carry out an “objective investigation” if the drone’s wreckage is handed over to it.