A Spanish F-18 fighter jet pilot on a ​NATO air policing mission shot down a drone ‌illegally breaching Romanian national airspace, the fourth unmanned aircraft the country has shot down this year, Romania’s defence ministry said on Sunday.

The NATO ​state shares a 614-km land border with Ukraine ​and has seen Russian drones repeatedly breach its airspace ⁠over the last four years, as well as ​mines floating in the Black Sea across key trade ​and energy routes.

The ministry did not specify the origin of the drone, saying its radars detected it entering the country from neighbouring ​Moldova, some 24 km north of the southeastern ​Romanian city of Galati.

The F-18 jet “made radar contact with the target ‌and ⁠received permission to engage it,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The drone was shot down safely at 05:01 am.”

The ministry said the fragments appeared to have ​fallen in an ​uninhabited area ⁠between two villages.

In July, Romanian F-16 fighter jet pilots shot down three Russian drones breaching ​national airspace for the first time after ​dozens ⁠of such incursions in more than four years of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier in the year, a ⁠Russian ​drone crashed into an apartment block in ​the city of Galati during an overnight attack on neighbouring Ukraine, injuring ​two people.