The warning sirens blare first, and only subsequently do the blasts arrive.

For 48-year-old Robert Marian, a resident of Isaccea — a small Romanian border town in eastern Tulcea County along the Danube River, where there is a crossing into Ukraine — the proximity of Russian drone strikes, just hundreds of meters across the river, has become a constant source of fear.

"There are alerts warning us that something is approaching," he said.

"It occurred a fortnight ago, perhaps three weeks ago.

I was asleep at midnight … One was more subdued, whereas another was exceedingly loud.

I became frightened and fled the house."

As Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on, drone incursions into Romania’s airspace have risen markedly.

The blasts just across the Danube serve as a stark reminder of how proximate the war is to NATO territory — at a juncture when many fear Russian President Vladimir Putin may be inclined to test the alliance’s resolve.

A Ukrainian border crossing with Romania was “deliberately damaged... as well as export infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Sept. 1.

Romanian customs announced the same day that operations at the Isaccea-Orlivka crossing had been temporarily suspended.

Alina Mihail, a fellow resident of Isaccea, recounts that she is overcome by nausea each time the drone alerts and blasts resound across the border.

“There are now countless nights during which I no longer sleep,” she said.

“I live in terror, my husband and I.”

Data from Romania's Ministry of National Defense indicate that drone incursions have risen threefold so far this year compared with the whole of 2025 — 27 compared with 9 — and that the number of drones and drone debris found on the NATO member's territory has more than doubled, at 37 compared with 16.

Already this year, 73 attacks have occurred near the border on Ukrainian territory, and some 56 military aircraft have been scrambled to “monitor and manage the situation.”

Last year, there were 28 attacks near the border and 21 aircraft were raised.

In the first year of the war, there was only one attack near the border.

In May, a drone, having crashed into an apartment block in the eastern town of Galati along the Danube River, injured a mother and child.

Last week, a drone that had entered Romania from neighboring Moldova was tracked through several counties before it reentered Moldova and crashed in a sunflower field.

Moscow has refuted allegations that it dispatched combat drones into Romanian airspace.

The escalating threat of drones entering Romania's airspace, many of which officials have blamed on Russia, led the NATO member to shoot down four drones this year — the first time since the war next door began.

NATO countries across Europe have accused Moscow of being behind a string of “hybrid war” actions against their countries, including drone incursions, sabotage, an attempted attack at a German airport and a Danish helicopter that was fired on with flares in the Baltic Sea.

On Sept. 2, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte remarked that “Russia has grown increasingly reckless” as Moscow persists in waging its war.

“We have observed an increasing number of drones and missiles penetrating our airspace along our eastern flank, which heightens the risk,” he said.

“The dangers Russia poses are unequivocal.”

Last week, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also warned that he had received information from CIA Director Jim Ratcliffe indicating Europe should be prepared for intensified Russian provocations, including on the European Union’s eastern flank.

Romanian Defense Minister Radu Miruta stated that Russia is regarded as a “primary, significant threat” to the eastern flank and to Romania, as reflected in both the National Defense Strategy and NATO assessments.

"We are involved in talks about the capabilities needed to counter this shared threat — facing the same risks as Poland and the Baltic states — and we are coordinating to ensure these capabilities are distributed in a way that allows for interconnection," he said.

In the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO reinforced its presence along Europe’s eastern flank by deploying additional multinational battle groups to Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

But last year, the U.S. reduced troop deployments to Eastern Europe, including Romania, after Washington shifted its military posture, which officials denied was a sign of lessened commitment to NATO.

Miruta stated that upwards of 1,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Romania, a figure he described as exceeding that recorded following the U.S. troop rotation the previous year.

“We have a solid relationship,” he said.

“The security dynamics along the eastern flank are highly fluid.”

Miruta said that discussions about NATO’s Article 5 — that an attack on any member can be met with a collective response — “can take various directions,” but said Romania currently has no information suggesting a ground invasion is imminent or likely.

"From this perspective, we can rest easy," he said.

He added that the ongoing threat to Romania is unique because of Russia's frequent attacks on Ukraine's Danube River ports, just a short distance across the natural river border.

“Once the border is crossed, the distance involved is just tens of meters, leaving very little time to react,” he said.

“In contrast, in the Nordic countries, targets are tens of kilometers away, which gives a sufficiently comfortable window for various forms of intervention.”

The crackle of live fire across the border can be both seen and heard in certain areas, and it has long kept Romanian residents on tenterhooks.

"We observe the drones approaching, we see them heading toward those ports," Miruta added.

"Most halt there, bombarding port infrastructure, yet we cannot know whether any might cross over to the other side … If one does cross over, our communities … would be at risk."

In response to a growing array of security threats, Romania and Poland acquired the MEROPS system, which fires short counter-drones to take down incoming stray drones.

Last month, the defense ministry also announced that it had received its first 2.5 billion euros from the EU’s Security Action for Europe program, out of a total of 16.6 billion allocated.

In June, the defense ministry also announced that it had signed a $2 billion contract with an Israeli firm to acquire short- and very-short-range air defense systems, “designed to protect against aerial threats, including drones and cruise missiles.”

At the Ankara summit, Romanian President Nicusor Dan stated that defense spending was projected to reach as much as 3.7% of GDP this year.

He further noted that Romania had joined NATO’s Drone Edge project, an initiative aimed at investing over $40 billion in “counter-drone capabilities” over the coming five years.

Back in Isaccea, Mihail recounts that she and her husband remain indoors whenever text alerts warn of potential airspace breaches.

"We are utterly devoid of support, with no one to come to our aid," she said.