Some Tulcea County locals from the village of Plauru, Ceatalchioi commune, say that the shelters built by the Ministry of National Defense (MApN) give them a sense of security and add that they have prepared a bag for cases of force majeure, when they will be forced to take shelter due to the Russian drones that attack the infrastructure of the Ukrainian ports on the Danube.
The Deputy Chief of the Defense Staff, Lieutenant General Gheorghita Vlad, declares that shelters similar to those in Plauru can be built in all the communities on the Romanian-Ukrainian border, if the local authorities provide support for this purpose.
“We have taken over the administration of the two shelters for the population and we must take care to maintain them properly. How we keep them, that’s how we have them,” declared for AGERPRES, the mayor of Ceatalchioi commune, Tudor Cernega.
In front of one of the two shelters for the population, Simion Holostencu, aged 81, says that the work of the Romanian soldiers from the 10th Military Engineers Brigade gives him a sense of security.
“I entered through it (shelter, ed. n.) there, it’s safe. I’ve already prepared a bag, with some water, a blanket, radio, phone, flashlight. Safety, however, now we have it,” Simion Holostencu said.
A few days ago, his wife went to Tulcea, because she cannot rest at night, against the backdrop of Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian ports and the messages received to warn the population about the possibility of drones falling on the Romanian bank of the Danube.
“I stayed, I have some chickens, I have tools for the garden, I have to water the cabbage. I can’t leave the household, I also have that big dog, about 60 kilograms,” the old man explained his decision.
With his eyes directed towards the shelter built by MApN, he remembers that when he was 5 years old, and his father was conscripted into the Army, for fear of the Russians, he left with his mother and other relatives from his native village, Ceatalchioi, towards Tulcea. From there, together with his grandparents, he was taken prisoner by Russia during the Second World War.
“They crossed us over the Danube. There were both women and men. The train ran a few kilometers, because the front had already broken, they dropped us off and took us to Siberia in wagons. We traveled about 50 kilometers and they stopped us in a village, a large commune, Krasna. The Russian soldiers walked around the houses and, where they found flour, they put gas so that the occupants wouldn’t stay, as they said. Then, the Romanian Army came and freed us,” Simion Holostencu recalled.
In the village of Plauru, people seem to see their lives further. Some take their animals to pasture, others try to fish among the ships on the Chilia arm of the Danube. People still have questions about where the Russian drones or fragments of them end up on the Romanian side of the river, blown by the wind or by factors not yet understood.
“I was outside and one passed over the Danube, I said that it demolished that 36th bridge (bridge on the radius of the Pardina commune, which crosses a canal from the Delta, ed. n.). It fell further here, in the forest . My cousin from Odessa sent me pictures and I can tell where it is. I didn’t go because it was right towards Pardina. There used to be a military pavilion there. As I look at the picture, it’s about there,” Marcel Nita said.
The MApN representatives draw attention to the information war that is taking place against the background of the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian ports on the Danube and underline the fact that Romania is not the target of the attacks.
In the last month, the Ukrainian ports on the Chilia branch of the Danube – Kilia, Izmail and Reni – have become the favourite target of Russian drone attacks, in the conditions in which these areas are the only solution for Ukraine’s grain export, and on the Chilia branch of the Danube they complained about the intensity of the attacks, those from the Ceatalchioi commune reporting the fall of some drones on Romanian territory.
On 6 September, the minister of National Defense, Angel Tilvar, confirmed the finding of some drone fragments near the village of Plauru, located on the banks of the Danube, opposite the area of the Ukrainian port of Izmail most attacked by Russian drones, in the same week, near the same village, fragments of a second drone being identified. On 13 September, a MApN helicopter identified, in Nufaru, fragments of a third drone that fell on Romanian territory.
