Friday morning, at 10.30, an explosion shook Port Constanța. A Ukrainian drone Sea Baby, more of a spy drone, being full of radars and monitoring systems, self-destructed.
Minutes before, Romanian authorities, who visually identified the drone, were urgently notified by Ukrainians to clear the area so that people would not be in danger.
Over 1,000 people were evacuated from the beaches in Constanța county. Port activities and city life were also severely affected.
“The maritime drone that exploded this morning in Port Constanța was part, alongside other similar means of combat, of a military operation led by Ukraine against Russian aggression,” announced President Nicușor Dan.
“The Ukrainian forces lost control of the respective means due to electronic warfare actions undertaken by Russia,” added the Romanian president.
A week after the moment when a Kremlin drone hit a building in Galați, another incident directly related to the conquest war Russia is waging in Ukraine almost caused casualties in Romania.
“While carrying out missions in the operational area of the Black Sea, one of the unmanned naval vessels of the Ukrainian Navy lost control and ended up off the coast of Romania,” according to an official statement from the Ukrainian military navy.
“The Ukrainian Naval Forces provided the necessary information to the Romanian naval forces to prevent civilian casualties,” as specified in the announcement by the authorities in Kiev.
Official statements indicate that at least 5 drones were conducting a military operation in the Black Sea, near Romania's territorial waters.
“The drone (exploded in the port - ed.) is said to be of Ukrainian origin. We don't know if that's true. There is information: one was detonated in international waters, I don't know exactly where, one was the one in the port of Constanța, and there are supposedly three more lost. As a precaution, we deployed helicopters…,” stated Adrian Picoiu, the prefect of Constanța county.
Greetings from Safeen Elona
At 09.20, on the morning of June 5, an hour and ten minutes before the explosion in Constanța, the tanker Safeen Elona departed from the Midia Năvodari Port, under the flag of the Marshall Islands.
The tanker's destination was the city of Novorossiysk. The distance between the Midia-Năvodari port, linked to the Petromidia refinery, and the Russian port is approximately 800 kilometers.
The operation of the Ukrainian drones in the Black Sea aimed at destroying the tanker Safeen Elona, according to sources who wished to remain anonymous due to the complexity of the situation.
The respective vessel is part of Russia's “phantom fleet,” with the Kremlin illegally operating dozens of tankers to trade in fuels, thus violating international sanctions.
On the Ukrainian government's website, the ship Safeen Elona is listed as part of Russia's phantom fleet, marked as an enemy ship because it “transports fossil fuels in violation of sanctions and other restrictions. It carries oil and petroleum products from Russia…,” according to the authorities in Kiev.
“The tanker, during the G7+ oil embargo, in the context of the policy of capping prices for Russian oil and petroleum products, is involved in the export of oil and petroleum products from Russian ports and carries out dubious activities near Russian ports in the Black Sea, near Romania and Bulgaria,” as described in the hostile actions of the ship made by the Ukrainian Government, according to the cited source.
“On April 11, 2025, Ukraine imposed sanctions on the ship's commander with IMO number 9488011. Starting December 13, 2025, Ukraine imposed sanctions on the ship,” announced the authorities in Kiev.
The Army, subtly, blames the police
For over a year and a half, the tanker Safeen Elona has been on Russia's “phantom fleet” list, a fleet of tankers that multiple European states are fighting against, and the Romanian government, institutions, and agencies have stood idly by and watched the Russian ship roam through Năvodari and Constanța.
Aside from today's transport, according to Ukrainian data, since being sanctioned, the ship has been spotted at least twice in Romanian ports on the Black Sea.
Spotmedia sent inquiries regarding the situation to both the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Shortly after, without directly responding to our publication's questions, Radu Miruță issued an official statement:
“Together with the Minister of Internal Affairs, Cătălin Predoiu, we will have in the near future a video conference with our Ukrainian counterparts to establish faster and more efficient communication procedures and mechanisms in such situations,” stated in the release.
“We must understand the reality we are in. Ukraine is a country at war, and Romania is at the border of this conflict. Incidents like today's are unwanted but can occur. Our responsibility is to be prepared and to intervene quickly so that any risk is kept under control,” added the Minister of Defense.
Additionally, the official emphasized that “officers from within the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who had operational responsibility in the area, intervened immediately and took measures to protect both the population and naval access to the port, as well as to verify naval traffic monitoring equipment.”
The issue was that, once again, the checks were carried out post-factum. The Russian ship had long departed. It was out at sea.
New Effects of Romania's Strategic Ambiguity
Ukrainian naval forces carried out several operations to destroy Russian tankers on the morning of June 5. In addition to the operation in the Black Sea, one also took place in the northern Sea of Azov, where, with the help of marine drones, they destroyed two tankers, Natra and Tsirkon, operated by Russia, with crews from Azerbaijan.
Since the start of the operations to destroy the Russian phantom tanker fleet, Ukraine, along with NATO member states, but not Romania, has taken 21 ships out of service - 2 sunk, 9 damaged, 10 detained.
Once again, complicity within the Romanian state, corruption, and strategic ambiguity have generated a critical situation in which the population was put at risk.
If the Russian ship, Safeen Elona, had not operated illegally in Romanian territorial waters for over a year and a half, transporting Kremlin oil, the situation in which Ukrainian forces conducted defensive military operations near the port of Constanța would not have arisen.