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STORY: UN / ROMANIA DRONE STRIKE
TRT: 07:35
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS
DATELINE: 01 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
01 JUNE 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Kayoko Gotoh, Director for Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas, Departments
of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations:
“On the night of 28 to 29 May, an armed drone exploded on the top floor of a ten-story residential building in the eastern Romanian city of Galaţi, injuring two residents, a woman and a child. This was not the first reported breach of Romanian airspace by an armed drone since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, it was the first time such an incident resulted in casualties.”
4. Med shot, Russian representative
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Kayoko Gotoh, Director for Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas, Departments
of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations:
“The United Nations strongly condemns all attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. Such attacks, wherever they occur, violate international humanitarian law and must cease immediately. Civilians must be protected at all times.”
6. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Kayoko Gotoh, Director for Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas, Departments
of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations:
“Amidst heightened tensions, it is incumbent on all concerned to act responsibly and to refrain from any action that could destabilize the situation further. As the Secretary-General emphasized last week, we urgently need immediate steps toward de-escalation, leading to a full and unconditional ceasefire. To that end, we urge dialog and negotiations to resume at once.”
9. Wide shot, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya addressing Council
10. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“We note that Romania has hastily convened this meeting and immediately put forward unfounded and biased accusations against Russia. We believe that the main purpose of today's meeting is to satisfy demand by Western countries to generate yet another wave of anti-Russian media hype, at any cost.”
11. Wide shot, Nebenzya addressing Council
12. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“Russian armed forces did conduct operations targeting the military infrastructure of the Kyiv regime on the night of May 29th. These actions are being carried out in response to the terrorist attacks carried out by the Kyiv regime against Russian civilian infrastructure facilities, which are systematic and consistent in nature. As part of those operations, strikes targeted facilities in the port of Reni in the Odesa region, through which our former Western partners supply military goods for the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces.”
13. Wide shot, Nebenzya addressing Council
14. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“According to official Romanian data, there was an impact in the city of Galaţi, allegedly involving a Russian Geran-2 UAV that struck the roof of an apartment building. The payload of such a UAV carries approximately 50kg of explosives. If such a drone had, as claimed, indeed hit the roof of a building, the consequences would not have been limited to the fire that was shown by Romanian media. The roof would have been destroyed completely.”
15. Med shot, delegates
16. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“Any assessment of such incidents must be based on verified facts and not political slogans. We draw your attention to the inconsistencies in statements by Romanian officials. Initially, they spoke of an allegedly deliberate Russian strike on a civilian object. Then, just hours later, the President of Romania, Nicușor Dan, revised that position, stating that a result of Ukrainian air defence activity, a Russian drone, had changed course and entered Romanian airspace.”
17. Wide shot, Romania’s Foreign Minister Oana-Silvia Ţoiu addressing Council
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Oana-Silvia Ţoiu, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Romania:
“It is imperative for the Council to address such unnecessary escalation by the Russian Federation in its war of aggression against Ukraine. The Security Council is the most powerful tool of the international community, a common tool that we have to prevent the perception of a normalization of the abuse. We can and should not move the line we have drawn. We should not consider these current escalations as the new normal.”
19. Wide shot, Ţoiu addressing Council
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Oana-Silvia Ţoiu, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Romania:
“Our military analysis shows that this drone was initially part of a swarm of drones used in an overnight attack against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on the Danube and travelled for four minutes within our territory and eventually crashed on the 10th floor of a residential apartment building in the city of Galaţi, Romania.”
23.Wide shot, Council
24. Wide shot, Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk addressing Council
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Andriy Melnyk, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ukraine:
“The recent attack against Romania was a cynical double strike which carried at least two messages. The first was directed at Romania and all NATO member states. It was yet another attempt to test the resolve of our neighbours, to probe reactions and to see how far Russia can go in bringing its war of aggression ever closer to the territory of Allied nations. But there was another second message the Romanian city of Galaţi plays a special role in Ukrainian history, as well as the place where one of the most important rulers, Hetman Ivan Mazepa, found his final resting place over 300 years ago. Hetman Mazepa has remained a source of particular hatred and resentment for Moscow, because he dared to challenge imperial rule and defend Ukraine's right to determine its own future, three centuries ago.”
26. Wide shot, Melnyk addressing Council
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Andriy Melnyk, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ukraine:
“We have to recognize that the most effective way to deal with these Russian attacks on the Romanian citizens, and indeed on all European citizens, is to prevent those drones from entering Ukraine's airspace in the first place. In practical terms, this means helping Ukraine protect our skies and establish a powerful and fully integrated air defence shield with all the combined capabilities of our European partners, we urgently call upon our allies also sitting on this table, not just to completely rethink and change the current approach and initiate a decisive shift in scale in the provision of air defence systems, we need at least a ten-fold, but actually 20-fold increase.”
29. Wide shot, end of Council meeting
30. Wide shot, group of Ambassadors at the stakeout podium
31. SOUNDBITE (English) Oana-Silvia Ţoiu, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Romania:
“Airspace violations by Russian drones over Romania and other central and eastern European partners have occurred repeatedly since the outbreak of the Russian war in Ukraine and are a direct consequence of the escalation tactics pursued by Russia in its attacks against Ukraine. This most recent incident had a direct impact on the safety and security of innocent civilians in Romania. Such behaviour is unacceptable under international law and must stop.”
32. Med shot, Ţoiu at the podium
SOUNDBITE (English) Oana-Silvia Ţoiu, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Romania:
“First of all, we wanted to address this in the Security Council as it has the widest legitimacy to have the needed conversation towards peace and security. And we do want to ensure that this international solidarity and the discussion in the Security Council leads to increased pressure, so that Russia authentically comes to the negotiation table to find a peace, a peace solution.”
33. Pan left, Ţoiu walks away
Following reports of a Russian armed drone explosion on the top floor of a ten-story residential building in the eastern Romanian city of Galaţi, on the night of 28 to 29 May, a UN political and peacebuilding official today (1 Jun) condemned “all attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure” and said, “such attacks, wherever they occur, violate international humanitarian law and must cease immediately,” stressing that “civilians must be protected at all times.”
Kayoko Gotoh, who is the Director for Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, told a Security Council emergency meeting that the explosion injured two residents, a woman and a child, and said, “this was not the first reported breach of Romanian airspace by an armed drone since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, it was the first time such an incident resulted in casualties.”
Amidst heightened tensions, Gotoh said, “it is incumbent on all concerned to act responsibly and to refrain from any action that could destabilize the situation further,” and urged for “dialog and negotiations to resume at once.”
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told the Council that the Russian Federation believes that” the main purpose of today's meeting is to satisfy demand by Western countries to generate yet another wave of anti-Russian media hype, at any cost.”
Nebenzya said, “Russian armed forces did conduct operations targeting the military infrastructure of the Kyiv regime on the night of May 29th. These actions are being carried out in response to the terrorist attacks carried out by the Kyiv regime against Russian civilian infrastructure facilities, which are systematic and consistent in nature. As part of those operations, strikes targeted facilities in the port of Reni in the Odesa region, through which our former Western partners supply military goods for the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces. “
He said that according to official Romanian data, “there was an impact in the city of Galaţi, allegedly involving a Russian Geran-2 UAV that struck the roof of an apartment building,” and argued that “the payload of such a UAV carries approximately 50kg of explosives,” which if “as claimed, indeed hit the roof of a building, the consequences would not have been limited to the fire that was shown by Romanian media. The roof would have been destroyed completely.”
Nebenzya said, “any assessment of such incidents must be based on verified facts and not political slogans. We draw your attention to the inconsistencies in statements by Romanian officials. Initially, they spoke of an allegedly deliberate Russian strike on a civilian object. Then, just hours later, the President of Romania, Nicușor Dan, revised that position, stating that a result of Ukrainian air defence activity, a Russian drone, had changed course and entered Romanian airspace. “
Romania’s Foreign Minister Oana-Silvia Ţoiu for her part told the Council that it was “imperative for the Council to address such unnecessary escalation by the Russian Federation in its war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Ţoiu said, “the Security Council is the most powerful tool of the international community, a common tool that we have to prevent the perception of a normalization of the abuse. We can and should not move the line we have drawn. We should not consider these current escalations as the new normal.”
She said, “our military analysis shows that this drone was initially part of a swarm of drones used in an overnight attack against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure on the Danube and travelled for four minutes within our territory and eventually crashed on the 10th floor of a residential apartment building in the city of Galaţi, Romania.”
Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk said, “the recent attack against Romania was a cynical double strike which carried at least two messages. The first was directed at Romania and all NATO member states. It was yet another attempt to test the resolve of our neighbours, to probe reactions and to see how far Russia can go in bringing its war of aggression ever closer to the territory of Allied nations. But there was another second message the Romanian city of Galaţi plays a special role in Ukrainian history, as well as the place where one of the most important rulers, Hetman Ivan Mazepa, found his final resting place over 300 years ago. Hetman Mazepa has remained a source of particular hatred and resentment for Moscow, because he dared to challenge imperial rule and defend Ukraine's right to determine its own future, three centuries ago.”
Melnyk said, “we have to recognize that the most effective way to deal with these Russian attacks on the Romanian citizens, and indeed on all European citizens, is to prevent those drones from entering Ukraine's airspace in the first place. In practical terms, this means helping Ukraine protect our skies and establish a powerful and fully integrated air defence shield with all the combined capabilities of our European partners, we urgently call upon our allies also sitting on this table, not just to completely rethink and change the current approach and initiate a decisive shift in scale in the provision of air defence systems, we need at least a ten-fold, but actually 20-fold increase.”
Before the meeting, Ţoiu, flanked by a large group of ambassadors, said, “airspace violations by Russian drones over Romania and other central and eastern European partners have occurred repeatedly since the outbreak of the Russian war in Ukraine and are a direct consequence of the escalation tactics pursued by Russia in its attacks against Ukraine. This most recent incident had a direct impact on the safety and security of innocent civilians in Romania. Such behaviour is unacceptable under international law and must stop.”
After the meeting, she again spoke to reporters and said, “we wanted to address this in the Security Council as it has the widest legitimacy to have the needed conversation towards peace and security. And we do want to ensure that this international solidarity and the discussion in the Security Council leads to increased pressure, so that Russia authentically comes to the negotiation table to find a peace, a peace solution.”
