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Romania evacuates border area after Russian strike on gas tanker

Romanian authorities evacuated a village on the border with Ukraine after Russian drones struck and set ablaze a tanker loaded with gas on the Danube River.

The village of Plauru in the commune of Ceatalchioi sits just a few hundred meters from the burning ship, which “could explode at any time,” Tudor Cernega, the mayor of Ceatalchioi, told Romanian news site Digi24.

“We checked house by house, we also took out the animals,” the mayor said. “We closed off traffic, the danger is great.”

Romania’s Department for Emergency Situations said in a statement on social media the blaze was the result of a “drone attack carried out on the territory of Ukraine” on Sunday night, which caused “a ship loaded with LPG” to be “engulfed in flames in the area of ​​Izmail,” a Ukrainian port city in the southwest of the country bordering Romania.

The department added it had ordered the evacuation of the entire commune of Ceatalchioi, which is home to about 250 people, and would send vehicles and ambulances.

The ship, the Turkish-flagged ORINDA, is capable of carrying about 1.8 million gallons of liquefied petroleum gas. Its crew were also evacuated after the blaze broke out, with video showing plumes of fire and smoke billowing from the vessel.

Moscow has frequently targeted Ukrainian port facilities situated on the Danube throughout its full-scale invasion, with drone parts found on Romania’s side of the river on several occasions.

LP Staff Writers

Writers at Lord’s Press come from a range of professional backgrounds, including history, diplomacy, heraldry, and public administration. Many publish anonymously or under initials—a practice that reflects the publication’s long-standing emphasis on discretion and editorial objectivity. While they bring expertise in European nobility, protocol, and archival research, their role is not to opine, but to document. Their focus remains on accuracy, historical integrity, and the preservation of events and individuals whose significance might otherwise go unrecorded.

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