Russia’s Foreign Ministry declared the Romanian consul general in St Petersburg persona non grata and ordered the closure of the country’s consulate in the city on 25 June, a step it described as a direct response to Romania’s earlier withdrawal of consent for the Russian consulate in Constanta. Romanian ambassador Cristian Istrate was summoned to receive the note, and the consulate is to cease operations. According to the Russian ministry, the measure answers what it called Bucharest’s “completely groundless” decision to revoke the agreement for the Russian mission and expel its head.

Romanian authorities took that decision in late May, hours after a drone struck a residential building in the Danube port of Galati, near the Ukrainian border, injuring two people. President Nicușor Dan said the drone had been shot down by Ukrainian air defences but held Russia responsible, and announced the closure of the Russian consulate in Constanta along with the expulsion of consul Andrey Kosilin. Moscow denied targeting Romanian territory, with President Vladimir Putin suggesting the drone could have been Ukrainian and calling for an expert examination of the debris. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly stated that Russian strikes are directed exclusively at military targets inside Ukraine and that Moscow does not fire drones or missiles at EU or NATO countries. In the days after the incident, 56 UN member states jointly denounced Russia over the crash, describing it as “unacceptable.”

The reciprocal expulsions leave each country with only an embassy and its consular section on the other’s soil. Viewed from Bucharest, the drone crash was the latest in a series of airspace violations that have also affected Baltic states and Finland, fuelling calls for tighter NATO air policing. Western diplomatic sources note that the pattern of stray drones from the war in Ukraine is eroding the buffer that once separated the conflict from alliance territory, even as Moscow insists it does not deliberately target neighbouring states.

The dossier remains tense, with no further steps announced by either side. The Romanian consul must now leave Russia, and the St Petersburg consulate will close. Analysts in Moscow point out that the tit-for-tat logic has become a recurring feature of Russia’s diplomatic relations with European states, and that further incidents could trigger additional reciprocal measures.