Radu Miruță, interim Defence Minister: I consider it legitimate for Ukraine to come and present the full sequence of events to us: what they had in mind, what the plan was, how they got there, whether they lost control of them or not, why some were there and some were farther away (…). Yesterday, as Defence Minister, I sent an official request, with 10 questions, to Ukraine’s Defence Minister. I also spoke with him by phone on Friday. We are waiting for answers to these questions. We will not accept as valid an answer that we do not consider sufficiently well argued. If that is the case. I don’t know. We will assess the answers we receive against the data we have, and I will not stop until there is a full explanation of how this all unfolded.
Radu Miruță also said what questions were included in the official request to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry: What was the plan for these drones that entered territorial waters? What was their mission? When did they lose control of these drones? Did they lose control of the drones’ communications, but did they know where the drones were or not? When did they know that the drone had become stuck and ended up where it did? What kind of communications did they have with this drone? What was the explosive payload? Was there only one? Did they all have one? These are legitimate questions about which the Romanian state must be crystal clear.
Minister Radu Miruță said he will propose to the Ukrainian side that the drones be programmed in such a way that they self-destruct if they come within 12 nautical miles of Romania’s Black Sea coast.
Radu Miruță, interim Defence Minister: I was also thinking of asking for another thing, and today we discussed it at length, together with the military colleagues in the ministry. It is something that can be done, and I will propose it. These drones have many electronic components on them. By analysing the data from these electronic components, their manufacturers, or, well, whoever controls them, can know where they are, sir, if it happens that you lose them, if, I don’t know, you have other missions in the Black Sea, and when they approach Romania’s territorial waters, at 12 nautical miles, the controller that manages this drone should be programmed to self-detonate automatically, without anyone having to go after them. If they have accidentally come closer to this line, the drone’s autonomous decision is to self-detonate. If, because of various mistakes and loss of control, you end up in this area, you can no longer go forward; it is an automatic setting on this product from the moment you launch it into the water.
