IDM Director on the Russian drone strike in Romania

4 June 2026 

The strike by a Russian-made “Geran-2” drone on a residential apartment building in Galați, Romania, on the night of 29 May 2026 marks a dangerous new threshold in the Russia-Ukraine war, one thatcan no longer be confined to Ukrainian territory alone. Two people were hospitalised, dozens evacuated, and for the first time, civilians on NATO soil were directly harmed by Russian weapons. 

IDM Director Sebastian Schäffer spoke with Caliber.az about the political and strategic implications of the incident. Schäffer called it “the most serious incident of airspace violation of a NATO memberstate since the beginning of the Russia–Ukraine war,” while cautioning that the political response signals reassessment rather than enforcement of red lines. 

The IDM Director identified three likely consequences: accelerated air defence deployment along NATO’s eastern flank, stronger political justification for direct support to Ukraine’s air defencecapabilities, and – despite the gravity of the incident – a continued low risk of direct military escalation between NATO and Russia. His core message: “Weakening Russia’s UAV capabilities is the most effective way to reduce the risk of the conflict spreading to NATO states.” 

He also posed a pointed ethical question that cuts to the heart of European policy: why does serious outrage only emerge once NATO territory is struck, when Ukrainians have been living under the same drone attacks for over four years? 

Read the full interview on Caliber.az: https://caliber.az/en/post/drone-over-romania-where-do-the-eu-and-nato-red-lines-lie