Romania has become a direct target of Russian operations since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In hotels, civilians and soldiers with French and NATO insignias mix, while in government offices, concern has taken on a more urgent tone. Local analysts maintain that these exercises, combined with the deployment of anti-drone systems, aim to send an unequivocal message: collective defense is not in doubt, despite the tactical realignment of American troops. In Bucharest, however, few believe that Vladimir Putin will stop his expansionist ambitions in Ukraine. Washington has repeatedly praised its role as a security guarantor in the Black Sea, and the presence of the US military has become an essential piece of regional deterrence. That scheme began to falter recently when the United States announced it would suspend the rotation of a brigade in Europe, in line with the strategic shift involving the deployment of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford to operations in the Caribbean. Romania, with its border of over 600 kilometers with Ukraine and its strategic position on the Black Sea, has been placed at the center of an increasingly volatile chessboard. In recent weeks, it conducted the 'Dacian Fall' operation, a deployment involving thousands of soldiers in the Transylvanian mountains that sought to demonstrate rapid reaction and allied cohesion. The combination of these factors has transformed the country into a primary target for Moscow's destabilization operations.
