The Bureau of Liberal International is outraged and condemns in the strongest possible terms the Russian drone strike that hit a residential block of flats in the Romanian city of Galați during last night’s assault on neighbouring Ukraine, causing an explosion and a fire that injured a woman and her child and forced some seventy residents from their homes.

This was no accident of war. It was the first time a Russian drone has struck a densely populated area on the soil of a NATO and European Union member state, and the twenty-eighth violation of Romanian airspace (according to the Romania’s defence ministry) since Vladimir Putin began his campaign against Ukraine’s Danube ports. Driven by the same delusion that has defined his unconscionable invasion of Ukraine, Putin continues to work tirelessly to destabilise liberal democracies and to hold the sovereignty and the very lives of free Europeans in open contempt. His reckless aggression now reaches into the homes of ordinary Romanian families.

The bureau stands in full solidarity with the people of Galați, with the Romanian nation, and with all who live under the shadow of this war. We salute the courage of Romania’s emergency services. We call on Romania’s allies to reinforce the defences of NATO’s eastern flank without hesitation and to leave Moscow in no doubt that the freedom and territorial integrity of every member state are non-negotiable. Only by proving that our resolve remains unshakable will Putin understand that his bullying aggression will not win. There can be no lasting security in Europe while this war continues. The road to peace runs through a sovereign and free Ukraine, and Liberal International will not waver in that conviction.