Romania's High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected appeals from both the prosecution and the defendants on August 6, clearing the way for the trial of Călin Georgescu, mercenary leader Horațiu Potra and 20 co-defendants on charges of actions against the constitutional order, described in the indictment as an attempted coup; the ruling upholds an earlier Bucharest Court of Appeals decision

The Danube River reached record low levels across central Europe by August 5-6, 2026, threatening both Romania's Cernavoda and Hungary's Paks nuclear plants; Romania's military completed an unprecedented operation to blast a rock formation from the riverbed to keep Cernavoda's cooling water intake functioning; as of August 6 the plant director said Unit 2 could be shut down in 5-6 days if the river keeps dropping; the drought is also disrupting Rhine freight and Germany's chemical industry

Romanian military engineers blasted a rock outcrop on the Danube riverbed on August 3 to divert more river flow to the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, Romania's only operating reactor; engineers also plan to sink ships to obstruct a competing channel; authorities called the dual operation unprecedented

Romania's government declared a national state of energy alert for the whole of August on July 31 after the Danube River fell to its lowest level in recorded history, with Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan warning that Romania risks losing 20% of its electricity production if the Cernavoda nuclear plant's second reactor also shuts down; the Danube water level in the Cernavoda area was falling by 2 to 3 centimetres per day, and Romanian water authorities said the plant could function at current limits for only another four to five days.

Romania's state nuclear operator Nuclearelectrica shut down Unit 1 of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant on July 27-28 due to record-low Danube water levels; by July 31 Romanian naval forces had been mobilised to support Unit 2's continued operation; Romania's water authority Apele Romane warned on August 1 that Cernavodă can function in current conditions for only another 4-5 days as the Danube falls 2-3 cm per day; Digi24 described the situation as the worst Danube energy crisis in the country's history

Russia's President Vladimir Putin told Russian Navy officers on July 26 that he was 'confident' Ukraine would 'sooner or later' lose its western territories, which he described as lands Stalin gifted to Soviet Ukraine after WWII; Poland's Foreign Ministry called it 'cynical' disinformation designed to split Warsaw from Kyiv; Hungary and Romania, also named, have not responded

An LPG tanker, the Gas Lisbon under Liberian flag, was attacked and exploded approximately 30 km from the Romanian port of Sulina outside Romanian territorial waters on the night of July 20 to 21 while sailing from Egypt to Ukraine; three crew members were wounded, and Romanian President Nicusor Dan called the strike 'most likely' a Russian attack and launched a probe

Romania's caretaker Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan announced on July 21 he would submit a public-sector salary restructuring law to parliament next week despite ongoing street protests; the new pay grid freezes salaries of higher-paid public workers until lower-paid colleagues catch up; Brussels is demanding 12.1 billion lei in compensatory measures to offset the fiscal cost

A hijacked Magura V5 explodes at Constanța's Pier 78; three more from the swarm are still unaccounted for