Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev has said that a drone entered Bulgaria's airspace from the north and exploded near the Romanian border on Saturday morning.

According to the prime minister, there were no casualties or damage to infrastructure, as the drone exploded in a sunflower field 100 meters from the border with Romania. He noted that neither of the two neighboring countries had detected the drone.

Radev added that the incident occurred about 1,000 meters from Bulgaria's compressor station on the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline route, which connects Turkey and Ukraine.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and strengthen surveillance. Following this incident, we will also redeploy border police anti-drone detection and countermeasure capabilities from the border with Turkey to the border with Romania," Radev said.

What do we know about the drone?

Speaking after an extraordinary meeting of his Cabinet's security council, Radev did not specify where the drone came from or what type it was.

However, he said that it was believed that the drone was carrying a significant amount of explosives given the strength of the blast and the black smoke it produced.

When asked if the drone was civilian or military, Radev said that there was photographic evidence available. However, because the drone was damaged in the explosion, it was impossible to determine its type.

After analysing the debris, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said the drone was of a type "widely used by the Ukrainian military."

Radev said the drone was not detected in Bulgarian or Romanian airspace because such drones are difficult to detect due to their small size.

Drone incidents on rise in EU countries

In recent months, there have been an increasing number of incidents involving drones in Eastern European countries that are both EU and NATO members and that support Ukraine in its four-and-a-half-year war against Russia's invasion.

The origin of the drone that exploded in Bulgaria and its potential connection to Russia or Ukraine are still unclear. Radev said that teams from the Bulgarian border police and the Ministry of Defense are working to determine the origin of the drone.

Bulgaria's Defense Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said the incident would be raised at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council early next week.

Romania, which borders Ukraine, has faced frequent drone incursions, including crashes on its territory, such as a May incident in which a drone struck an apartment building.

Earlier this week in Germany, an explosive-laden drone was defused at Leipzig Airport, in what Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt called a "new level of danger."

Edited by: Rana Taha

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