Zelensky says Russian drones twice entered Moldovan airspace while his plane was there

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CBS News that Russian drones had recently used Moldovan airspace twice at times when his presidential plane was present in the country. He said the incidents occurred both when his plane departed Moldova and when it returned through Chișinău, with the second episode not previously reported to media.

Asked whether Moscow was trying to intimidate him with these actions, Zelensky said yes. He raised the Moldova incidents while commenting on a separate Russian drone strike near a train carrying European diplomats and officials from Ukraine to Poland.

Zelensky said he believed Russia knew that Europeans, Americans and large delegations were aboard that train, yet struck anyway. He noted that similar incidents had repeatedly occurred in Moldova and Romania, and occasionally in Poland, describing it as a process in which Russia demonstrates its power without facing any response.

Reports of a near-collision

On September 9, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Zelensky's plane had narrowly avoided colliding with a drone while departing Moldova for Oslo. The Moldovan government confirmed it had temporarily closed its airspace after detecting a drone, delaying Zelensky's departure from Chișinău.

According to Moldova Liberă, authorities received an alert about the drone at 4:30 p.m., and learned after 5:20 p.m. that it had exploded near the village of Mihăilenii Vechi in Rîșcani District, about 160 kilometers from Chișinău International Airport. Restrictions were then lifted and Zelensky's plane departed.

A source in the Ukrainian president's office told AFP that the Norwegian prime minister's account of a near-collision was an exaggeration. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the threat to Zelensky's plane had been illusory, adding that Ukrainians themselves had acknowledged as much.