Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that it was premature to conclude whether the drone that crashed into an apartment building in Romania was Russian, suggesting it could have been a Ukrainian drone and calling for a thorough investigation into the incident.
NATO accused Moscow on Friday of reckless behaviour and pledged to "defend every inch of Allied territory" after Romania said a Russian drone had crashed into an apartment block in the alliance member state during an attack on neighboring Ukraine.
"Who in Romania says that this is a Russian drone?" Putin asked reporters at a news conference in Astana, Kazakhstan. He said he had only just heard of the incident as he had been in talks all day. "No one can say what the origin of this or that drone is until an examination has been carried out," he said.
Putin said that Ukrainian drones had previously been spotted in Finland, Poland and in the Baltic countries.
"The first reaction was exactly the same as it is now in Romania: The Russians are coming," Putin said. "Then, after a short time, it turned out that it had nothing to do with Russian drones."
Putin also pushed back against remarks by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who accused Russia of crossing another line with the incident, saying that she had not examined the drone debris herself.
Putin suggested that Romania share information about what happened and potentially drone fragments so that Moscow could conduct its own investigation.
