The Russian government’s most notorious troll is leaning into the recent bombing of a Romanian apartment building after a drone intended to detonate in Ukraine drifted off course.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former president of Russia and current deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, made a thinly veiled reference to the drone incident on Friday when he warned Europeans they were at war with his country.
“Citizens of EU countries, you should realize your authorities have unilaterally entered into a war with Russia. So be vigilant and don’t be surprised by anything. The peaceful sleep is over. But you know who to ask why!”
Medvedev, despite his history leading the nation, is now widely seen as the Kremlin’s resident provocateur and troll in times of tension.
The Russian drone collided with an apartment building in the Romanian city of Galati overnight, injuring two people and forcing an evacuation.
Brig. Gen. Gheorghe Maxim, representing the Romanian armed forces’ joint staff, claimed at a Friday press conference that the drone detonation was not an “attack from Russia against Romania,” but that Romanians should “understand that Russia is a threat to the security of the countries in the area.”
Romanian President Nicusor Dan, decrying the Kremlin’s “systematic disregard for international law,” announced the expulsion of Russia’s diplomats from his country.
“We had a serious incident last night in which two citizens were injured and the entire responsibility lies with Russia,” Dan said. “The Russian Consul General in Constanta has been declared persona non grata and the consulate in Constanta will close.”
Dan elaborated on his decision in a post on X, informing his allies in NATO and the European Union of Romania’s heightened alert and requesting fellow member states to send anti-drone defense systems to prevent future incidents.
“I declare, with the utmost firmness, that full responsibility for this incident lies with the Russian Federation,” Dan said in Romanian. “What happened today in Galati is the direct consequence of Russia’s war of aggression unleashed against Ukraine, the irresponsible and indiscriminate manner in which Moscow operates these weapon systems in the immediate vicinity of NATO borders, as well as the systematic disregard for international law. There is no ambiguity regarding the perpetrator or the cause of this aggression.”
The president also notified the United Nations Security Council.
The entire debacle pours gasoline on tensions between members of NATO and Russia. The defensive alliance has repeatedly accused the Kremlin of intentionally violating European airspace and antagonizing members by jamming GPS signals. The Russian government has dismissed these accusations as baseless.
NATO MEMBER ROMANIA DECLARES RUSSIA ‘PERSONA NON GRATA’ AFTER DRONE ATTACK INJURES TWO
On Thursday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused European adversaries of lying about Russian tampering with the continent’s GPS systems, demanding they “first present at least some evidence” of such violations before “something can be discussed, something can be talked about.”
“So far, these are just words, and you can’t take their word for it,” she added at the time.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, briefly addressed the overnight bombing during a Friday press conference, in which he suggested that it could have been a Ukrainian drone that had drifted over the border and caused the explosions.
“No one can tell the origin of a particular aircraft until an examination of that aircraft has been carried out,” Putin told the press. “After all, we know that Ukrainian drones have flown into Finland, into Poland, and into some of the Baltic states.”