Romania’s President Nicusor Dan said on Friday, when asked about Russia’s allegations that Romania would have allowed Ukrainian military planes to fly over its national airspace, that they are „totally false”, mentioning that he has all the information and „that did not happen.

„It’s totally false, I have all the information and that didn’t happen,” the president said, when asked about the statements

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Romania allowed Ukrainian military aircraft to fly over national airspace.

On Thursday she criticised the reaction of the Romanian authorities to the entry of four Ukrainian aircraft into Romania’s airspace, according to media reports.

The radar surveillance systems of the country’s Ministry of National Defence (MApN) signalled, on July 21 at around 03:00hrs, air targets that evolved on different flight paths in Ukrainian airspace, north of the border with Romania, near the Maramures – Suceava area.

According to MApN, Ukraine confirmed having taken measures to disperse military aircraft from airfields in western Ukraine, as a result of massive attacks by the Russian Federation on Ukrainian airport infrastructure.

As a result of this situation, MApN informed civil air traffic for an integrated monitoring of the situation. At the same time, two Romanian F-16 aircraft took off, around 03:30hrs, from the 86th Borcea Air Base, for aerial reconnaissance missions, and around 05:00hrs, the take-off order was given for two Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft of the Italian Air Force, in the Air Police Combat Service in the 57th Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base.

„During the operations carried out between 03:30hrs and 06:00hrs, 12 Ukrainian air targets were detected that evolved in Ukrainian airspace, north of the border with Romania. Four of them unintentionally entered, for a few minutes, in the airspace of Romania, in the areas of Sighetu Marmatiei and Vicovu de Sus, without posing any real danger to national security, people’s lives or Romanian assets,” said MApN.

After the completion of the missions, the F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force landed, around 06:00hrs, at the Borcea air base, and the Italian Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, around 07:00hrs, at the Mihail Kogalniceanu base.

AGERPRES