Romanian defence radars detected an aerial target on Friday evening, 13 November 2026, southeast of Snake Island, inside Ukrainian airspace.

In its statement that evening, the Ministry of National Defence said the radar surveillance system picked up the target during the night of 13 November. The notice describes it only as an aerial target in Ukrainian airspace and does not name the type of aircraft.

Two Romanian Air Force F-16s on quick-reaction air-policing duty took off from the 86th Air Base at Fetești.

The National Military Command Centre, in its nucleus setup, notified the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations so people in the north of Tulcea County could be warned. A RO-Alert message went out at 21:53.

Ziare.com, also citing the defence ministry, reports that the air alert ended at 22:58. A little over an hour passed between the public warning and the all-clear.

Snake Island lies in the Black Sea, off the Ukrainian coast. Friday’s warning covered northern Tulcea, the Romanian county closest to that stretch of the coast.

The ministry presented the take-off as part of the air-policing combat duty at Fetești. The accounts carried by News.ro and Ziare.com do not mention an interception, a shoot-down, or the target entering Romanian airspace.

Image: Wikimedia Commons — Romanian F-16 at the 86th Air Base, Borcea, October 2021 (public domain, US Air Force). The photo is from a training event, not the 13 November 2026 alert.

Sources consulted: Defence ministry: aerial target southeast of Snake Island — News.ro; Tulcea alert, F-16s from Fetești — Ziare.com.