The Russian attack reportedly killed an eight-year-old boy.

08:11, Wed, Apr 15, 2026 Updated: 08:40, Wed, Apr 15, 2026

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(file pic) Fighter jets were scrambled by Romania overnight (Image: Getty)

A NATO member state was forced to scramble two F-16 fighter jets overnight and place its air defence systems into firing position as Russia rained hell on Ukraine once again. Russian strikes across Ukraine in the past 24 hours included renewed attacks on Odesa region ports on the River Danube - just half a mile from Romania.

Emergency alerts were sent out across northern parts of Tulcea just after 3.45am local time on Tuesday, and ended about an hour later. Tulcea is directly across the border from the Ukrainian port of Izmail, bordered by the River Danube. The country's Ministry of National Defence said: "Two F-16 aircraft of the Romanian Air Force from the Air Police Combat Service took off from the 86th Air Base in Fetești, and the air defence systems were put into firing positions.

Two F16 fighter jets

Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled. (Image: Getty)

"Within a few hours, another group of drones was detected moving towards Izmail [Ukraine], and a new RO-Alert message was sent at 5:08am."

The government confirmed that none of the Russian drones breached Romanian airspace.

Ukrainian authorities said Russia "massively attacked" civilian and port infrastructure, damaging facilities at Izmail and a Panamanian-flagged ship. There were no casualties.

The governor of Odesa confirmed two buses, a service station, six homes, and seven cars were hit, as well as a Liberian-flagged ship.

Earlier Russian attacks killed five people and injured 27 in Dnipro. Harrowing scenes showed victims with blast injuries, shrapnel wounds, lacerations and fractures on the street in the Ukrainian city.

An emergency worker is seen assisting a civilian woman, 54, saying: "Just an ordinary civilian woman, nothing military... Film it, film it. Her leg’s torn apart."

The woman said: "It’s been ripped off…. I can’t feel my legs." Three more were then wounded in subsequent attacks on Dnipro.

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Separately, Volodymyr Zelensky’s home city Kryvyi Rih was under savage attack from Putin’s forces, hit by a giant mushroom flame.

Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, was also hit by six aerial bombs at the Pechenihy dam in the Kharkiv region.