Ceatalchioi is a commune in
Tulcea County
Tulcea County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in the historical region Dobruja, with the capital city at Tulcea. It includes in its northeast corner the large and thinly-populated estuary of the Danube.
Demographics
In 2021, Tulcea Coun ...
,
Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja ( or simply ; , ''Severna Dobrudzha'') is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube, Danube River and the Black Sea, bordered in the south by Southern Dobruja, which is a part of Bulgaria.
...
,
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
. It is composed of four villages: Ceatalchioi (), Pătlăgeanca (historical name: ''
Principesa Ileana''), Plauru (historical name: ''
Lascăr Catargiu
Lascăr Catargiu ( or Lascăr Catargi; 1 November 1823 – ) was a Romanian conservative statesman born in Moldavia. He belonged to an ancient Wallachian family, one of whose members had been banished in the 17th century by Prince Matei Basarab, ...
''), and Sălceni.
Location
The commune is located in the northern part of Tulcea County, north of the county seat,
Tulcea
Tulcea (; also known by #Names, alternative names) is a city in Northern Dobruja, Romania. It is the administrative center of Tulcea County, and had a population of 65,624 . One village, Tudor Vladimirescu, is administered by the city. It is one ...
. It lies in the
Danube Delta
The Danube Delta (, ; , ) is the second largest river delta in Europe, after the Volga Delta, and is the best preserved on the continent. Occurring where the Danube, Danube River empties into the Black Sea, most of the Danube Delta lies in Romania ...
, on the right bank of the
Chilia branch
The Chilia branch (; ) is one of three main distributary channels of the river Danube that contribute to forming the Danube Delta. Lying at the northernmost area of the delta, the distributary creates a natural border between Romania and Ukra ...
of the
Danube
The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
, which marks the
Romania–Ukraine border
The Romania–Ukraine border is the state border between Romania and Ukraine. It consists of both a land and a maritime boundary. The total border length is including by rivers and by the Black Sea. It is part of the external border of the ...
. Across from the village of Plauru is the city of
Izmail
Izmail (, ; ; , or ; ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality on the Danube river in Odesa Oblast in south-western Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Izmail Raion, one of seven distr ...
, on the
Ukrainian side of the border.
September 2023 explosions
During the evening of September 3, 2023, during the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
, multiple Russian drones of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
ian production
Shahed-136
The HESA Shahed 136 (, ), also known by its Russian designation Geran-2 (, ), is an Iranian-designed loitering munition, also referred to as a kamikaze drone or suicide drone, in the form of an autonomous pusher-propelled drone. It is design ...
, that were supposed to hit a target in Izmail, crashed and detonated on the Romanian side, close to the village of Plauru (). As the area the detonations took place is uninhabited, the incident went unnoticed, and it was the
Ukrainian government
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (), commonly referred to as the Government of Ukraine (), is the highest body of state executive power in Ukraine. As the Cabinet of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, it was formed on 18 April 1991, by the Law ...
who announced the explosion of Russian drones in Romania.
Initially, the
Romanian government
The Government of Romania () forms one half of the executive branch of the government of Romania (the other half being the office of the President of Romania). It is headed by the Prime Minister of Romania, and consists of the ministries, variou ...
denied the event taking place, but on September 4, the
State Border Guard Service of Ukraine
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine ( SBGSU; , ; ) is the border guard of Ukraine. It is an independent law enforcement agency, organized by the Constitution of Ukraine as a military formation, the head of which is subordinated to the Pres ...
published a video showing the explosions taking place on the Romanian side. The Ukrainian government informed the Romanian government and a search party was commenced. As Romania is a
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
member state, it was believed that the government is denying the incidents to avoid an escalation of the events. However, fragments of a first drone were found in the area close to the Danube shore days later, confirming that a Russian drone detonated in Romania. The Romanian president
Klaus Iohannis
Klaus Werner Iohannis (; ; born 13 June 1959) is a Romanian politician, physicist, and former teacher who served as the fifth president of Romania from 2014 until his resignation in 2025. Prior to entering Politics of Romania, national politics, ...
had a phone conversation with
Jens Stoltenberg
Jens Stoltenberg (; born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. Since 2025, he has been the Minister of Finance in the Støre Cabinet. He has previously been the prime minister of Norway and secretary general of NATO.
...
, the secretary general of NATO, after the incident, which publicly stated that "Romania has full NATO support.".
Parts of a second drone were found on September 9 in the immediate vicinity of the village of Plauru and the third on September 13 in the area of the village of Victoria in the commune of
Nufăru, 15 km from the Romanian-Ukrainian border, which spread over several tens of meters, confirming that multiple drones were detonated on Romanian soil. The
Ukrainian Air Force
The Ukrainian Air Force (, PS ZSU) is the air force of Ukraine and one of the eight Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU). Its current form was created in 2004 by merging the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces into the Air Fo ...
recorded that the
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
launched several groups of attack
UAVs
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...
from the area of the
Chauda training ground (
occupied Crimea) and
Primorsko-Akhtarsk (
Russian Federation
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
). Journalists on the site began questioning locals, who stated that they often saw Russian drones flying over their houses, giving clues that it may not have been the first time Russia violates Romanian airspace.
Similar incidents already took place in
Moldova
Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, and
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
, countries not involved directly in the conflict. Romania became the second NATO country to be affected, after Poland. Coincidentally, Poland and Romania were the countries to be the most threatened by Russian politicians, because of their proximity and NATO membership.
On July 25, 2024, three Shahed drones launched by Russia strayed into Romania's airspace;
debris from one of the
Geran-2 drones were subsequently found in Plauru by the Romanian authorities.
See also
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Action of 26 June 1941
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Communes in Tulcea County
Localities in Northern Dobruja
Place names of Turkish origin in Romania