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NATO-member Romania steps up defences near Danube
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Russian drone parts have fallen on its territory
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Moscow attacking Ukrainian grain port facilities nearby
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NATO boss calls the attacks 'reckless', 'destabilising'
By Luiza Ilie
BUCHAREST, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Romania is moving air defences closer to its Danube villages across the river from Ukraine where Russian drones have been attacking grain facilities, and is adding more military observation posts and patrols to the area, two senior defence sources said.
The measures, along with the deployment of four additional U.S. F-16 fighter jets and an expanded no-fly zone, are a sign of growing concern in Romania and the broader NATO alliance that the Ukraine war could spill over into its territory.
In November last year, a missile hit southern Poland killing two people and prompting a brief security scare, although it was later determined that Ukrainian air defences were to blame. Now Romania is in the spotlight.
Soon after pulling out of the Black Sea grain deal on July 17, Moscow began targeting Ukrainian ports and warehouses along the Danube, in an apparent attempt to choke off the main alternative route for Ukraine's agricultural exports.
Among the targets were the Ukrainian ports of Izmail and Reni, both of which lie across the Danube from Romanian soil.
Isolated incidents of drone parts landing in Romania underline the risk of a misunderstanding, or worse, between Russia and NATO, prompting Romanian armed forces to increase security in the area to protect civilians, the two sources said.
They declined to be named in order to discuss sensitive security matters.
The army has built two bomb shelters in the small hamlet of Plauru, just a few hundred metres from Izmail, and residents in the wider area are sent alerts on mobile phones when Russian drones are detected heading in their direction.
Tudor Cernega, mayor of the commune of Ceatalchioi which includes the hamlet of Plauru, said, however, that poor mobile reception there limited the effectiveness of the warnings.
In a statement last Friday Romania's defence ministry said that around 100 U.S. troops and four U.S.-designed F-16 Fighting Falcon jets had arrived at Borcea military air base around 150 km south of Izmail.
From mid-September, the ministry also expanded a no-fly zone along a section of the border with Ukraine to up to 30 km (20 miles) inside Romania and to a height of 4,000 metres as a deterrent against Russian drones entering Romanian air space to reach enemy targets.
ROMANIA 'NOT THE TARGET'