Romania's President Nicușor Dan accused Russia of deploying the marine drone, which was destroyed on Thursday near the Neptun Deep gas project in the Black Sea. Once developed, Neptun Deep is expected to make Romania the largest natural gas producer in the European Union. The Romanian Defense Ministry, in coordination with the President, decided to destroy the drone to protect hundreds of personnel and safeguard critical infrastructure. A NATO spokesperson confirmed that Romanian F-16s were scrambled in response to a maritime drone detected in Romania's Exclusive Economic Zone, with one aircraft successfully engaging it. This incident follows previous reports of Russian drones breaching Romanian airspace, including one shot down in late July.