Mike Baker

It's Friday, the 29th of May.

Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin.

I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.

All right, let's get briefed.

First up, Russian drones have reportedly struck a NATO country, injuring civilians in Romania and raising new questions about how the alliance will respond.

Later in the show, one of the Cuban pilots named in last week's indictment of Raul Castro has now been sentenced in the U.S.

But first, today's afternoon spotlight.

News out of Eastern Europe, where Romanian officials say a Russian drone crossed into their airspace during a massive overnight attack on neighboring Ukraine and slammed into an apartment building in the border city of Galats, injuring two civilians and setting part of the building on fire.

The incident occurred during one of Russia's latest large-scale drone barrages against Ukrainian targets.

According to Ukrainian authorities, Moscow launched more than 230 drones and a ballistic missile overnight.

While most were intercepted, several crossed into Romanian airspace, prompting Romania to scramble fighter jets and a military helicopter in response.

Now, while stray drones and missile debris have landed inside NATO countries before,

This incident is drawing particular attention because civilians were reportedly injured inside alliance territory.

The response from NATO, as you might imagine, was immediate.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte condemned what he called Russia's reckless behavior, saying the consequences of Moscow's war don't stop at Ukraine's borders.

The U.S.

ambassador to NATO echoed that message, saying the alliance stands with Romania and remains prepared to defend every inch of NATO territory.

But perhaps the most significant development came from Bucharest.

Romania's foreign minister said the country is now considering invoking Article 4 of the NATO Treaty.

Now, most people are familiar with Article 5, that's the alliance's collective defense clause, stating that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.