A drone invaded Bulgaria’s airspace across the border with Romania and exploded 100 meters after it reached the Bulgarian territory and some 1000 meters away from the Bulgarian compressor station of the Trans-Balkan Gas Pipeline. The drone did not cause casualties or damage to buildings and infrastructure. This was stated by Prime Minister Rumen Radev after the preceding meeting of the Security Council under the Council of Ministers.

The safety of the location of the incident was ensured by patrols and equipment of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense. The Prime Minister noted that the type of the device would be clarified following an analysis of the fragments and stressed that it was not a hobby drone judging from the explosion that was detected in both Bulgaria and Romania.

The unmanned aerial vehicle was detected neither in the Romanian nor in the Bulgarian airspace nor was it detected by the Combined Air Operations Centre Torrejón (CAOC Torrejón) in Spain which monitors the airspace of all Southern Europe.

The Prime Minister pointed out that the detection and identification of these drones continues to be a challenge and stressed the responsibility for the years of delay in the delivery of state-of-the-art digital three-dimensional radars to the Bulgarian Army, a process that the Ministry of Defense is now doing the best it can to speed up.

Also, the Prime Minister said that the surveillance and defense of the Bulgarian airspace along the border with Romania would be additionally strengthened including the redeployment of service personnel and equipment of the Border Police to be relocated from the border with Turkey. Measures have been taken to strengthen security at strategic points in the country.