Retired Romanian General Dorin Toma, a former commander of NATO’s Multinational Division Southeast, has called for an Alliance-led operation in the Black Sea, telling Digi24 that attacks on commercial vessels in the region are “100% deliberate.”
Toma said both Ukraine and Russia were using aerial and maritime drones to target civilian ships transporting oil in Russia’s case and grain in Ukraine’s. He argued that accidental strikes on commercial vessels by such drones were virtually impossible.
Although Romanian attention has focused mainly on incidents in the western Black Sea, Toma noted that similar attacks had occurred in the eastern part of the region, where Ukraine had struck commercial vessels, including ships owned by Turkish companies.
“Incidents of this nature are taking place throughout the Black Sea region, and these are, without a doubt, deliberate attacks,” the retired general said.
Toma identified urgency as the key priority, arguing that Romania should have established and integrated surveillance, early-warning and threat-identification systems much earlier.
“It was likely realized, eventually, that these capabilities – systems for the surveillance, warning, and identification of such threats—should have been developed and integrated yesterday, not today, and certainly not tomorrow,” he told Digi24.
He criticized plans to obtain some of these capabilities through the European SAFE program in 2028 or 2030, insisting that the systems were needed immediately.
Toma said protecting Romanian ports, territorial waters and critical infrastructure within the country’s exclusive economic zone would not amount to an escalation.
“Romania must defend its interests in the Black Sea. This concerns the port area, the territorial waters, which are sovereign Romanian territory, and all economic activity within the exclusive economic zone,” he said.
In Toma’s view, individual NATO members deploying additional surveillance and threat-detection equipment would not be enough to address the situation. He called for a coordinated Alliance mission based on the model of NATO’s operation in the Baltic Sea, with different systems integrated to work toward a shared objective.
The general warned that equipment deployed temporarily could be moved elsewhere if an urgent requirement emerged in another part of NATO’s area of responsibility.
He said a dedicated operation would provide the necessary coordination through integrated systems, a clearly defined chain of command and control, and the inclusion of national components.
Toma’s comments follow a series of incidents involving commercial vessels in the Black Sea.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Romanian President Nicușor Dan said Russia appeared more interested in widening the war in Ukraine than bringing it to an end, citing a growing number of provocations on the territory of the European Union.
Romania plans to improve its ability to respond to incidents in the Black Sea by developing maritime surveillance systems, strengthening mine-countermeasure capabilities and improving defenses against drones that enter its national airspace and maritime space without authorization.