We have grown accustomed to any unidentified flying object entering Moldova’s airspace being automatically declared Russian and hostile. But it turns out not everyone in the EU plays by these rules.
Bulgaria’s Ministry of Defense, upon discovering a drone that had entered from Romania and landed in a sunflower field near the town of Targovishte, did not immediately panic. Instead, they decided to investigate and clarify the circumstances of the incident.
It turned out that there is no Russian trace in this story and cannot be. In terms of appearance and technical characteristics, the downed drone most closely resembles a Ukrainian drone with a name painfully familiar to any Moldovan — “Maya” .
This was the first recognized case of a Ukrainian UAV falling on Bulgarian territory . So far, there have been no reports of protests from Sofia or condemnation by the Bulgarian government of its airspace being violated. No reaction from NATO regarding an act of aggression against a member of the alliance has followed either, though some Bulgarian politicians have called for an investigation as a potential incident against critical infrastructure of a NATO state .
Ukraine, for its part, has stated that it is in contact with Bulgarian colleagues to clarify the circumstances and that its forces did not intentionally direct any means toward Bulgaria . Bulgaria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned Ukraine’s ambassador for talks on Monday, August 10 .
