We live with war over our heads': the Romanian villagers threatened by Russian drones

"At the edge of Romania's Danube delta on the border with Ukraine, in the village of Plauru, cows graze in flat, marshy fields. Houses with blue-painted roofs and window frames line a dirt track, many shuttered or abandoned. Residents can see the cranes and silos of Izmail, a Ukrainian port city separated from Plauru by the 300 metre-width of the Danube River. By day the scene is deceptively calm. But sometimes, after dark, that calm dissolves."

"The hum of drones cuts through the night, followed by explosions that rattle windows and shake people out of their beds. For the 500 or so people in Ceatalchioi commune, which includes Plauru and three other villages, the war in Ukraine is not something they watch from a distance, but a daily reality. Map As Russia targets Ukrainian port infrastructure along the Danube, Romanian villages squeezed against the border have found themselves on the frontline of a conflict in which they are not fighting."

"For more than three years we have lived with war over our heads. Some areas in Ukraine do not have the level of stress that we have here, said Tudor Cerneaga, the mayor of Ceatalchioi commune. We are on the hotline. Practically, we are part of the war too. For Cerneaga, the lack of a paved road is not just an inconvenience but a safety risk, slowing evacuations and deepening the commune's isolation."

Villages in Romania's Danube delta, including Plauru and the Ceatalchioi commune, sit directly across the river from Ukrainian port infrastructure and daily confront drone noise and explosions. Drone debris has repeatedly landed on Romanian soil, creating civilian danger and prompting security and escalation concerns for Nato's eastern communities. Approximately 500 residents rely on a single rutted dirt road and ferry connections, which hinder evacuations and deepen isolation. Local leaders report prolonged stress and describe the communities as effectively on the frontline despite not being engaged in combat.

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