SOFIA, Aug 8 (Reuters) – A drone entered Bulgarian airspace from Romania’s airspace on Saturday and exploded near the village of Kardam close to the border, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said, adding that there were no casualties or infrastructure damage.
Bulgaria’s defence ministry later said that the drone was most likely a Maya decoy drone according to initial analysis. This type of drone, it said, is widely used by the Ukrainian armed forces.
The ministry said in its statement that there was no reason to believe the incident was intentional.
Drone incursions that Western governments have linked to the Russia-Ukraine war have increased in frequency and raised anxiety that members of the NATO alliance need to bolster their defences against security threats.
The drone entered Bulgarian airspace at 8.10 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and went off in a sunflower field near the border with Romania, Radev said in a statement.
The explosion site is 1,000 meters (3,281 ft) from Bulgaria’s compressor station of the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, which stretches from Turkey to Ukraine, and 200 metres from Romania’s compressor station.
Radev said the security of strategic sites in the country and surveillance along the Bulgaria-Romania border would be increased.
The unmanned aerial vehicle was not detected earlier in Bulgarian or in Romanian airspace, which confirms that the detection and identification of drones remains a challenge, Radev said. He also noted a delay in the delivery of high-precision radars to the Bulgarian army and promised action.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou and Stoyan Nenov; editing by Philippa Fletcher, Barbara Lewis and Susan Fenton)
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