'We are part of the war too'

The Romanian villagers living in fear of Russian drone attacks

- Andrei Popoviciu

At the edge of Romania's Danube delta on the border with Ukraine, in the village of Plauru, cows graze in flat, marshy fields. Houses with painted blue roofs, many shuttered or abandoned, line a dirt track.

Villagers can see the cranes and silos of Izmail, a Ukrainian port city separated from Plauru by the 300-metre width of the Danube River. By day, the scene is deceptively calm. But sometimes, after dark, the peace dissolves. The hum of drones cuts through the night, followed by explosions that rattle windows and shake people out of their beds. For the 500 or so people in Ceatalchioi commune, which includes Plauru and three other villages, the war in Ukraine is not something they watch from a distance, but a daily reality.

As Russia targets Ukrainian port infrastructure along the Danube, Romanian villages on the border have found themselves on the frontline of a conflict in which they are not fighting. Drone debris has repeatedly landed on Romanian territory, raising uncomfortable questions for Nato's easternmost communities about security, escalation and how long civilians can be expected to live under constant threat.

Ceatalchioi and its villages are connected to the outside world by a single dirt road that winds to Tulcea, the nearest city. The road is deeply rutted and dotted with potholes, making it barely passable in places.