Zelensky: Russian drones attacked Moldova twice while crossing its airspace

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast yesterday, Tuesday, that Russian drones attacked Moldovan airspace twice while he was transiting through it.

Zelenskyy told the American CBS television network that he was at Chișinău Airport in Moldova, on the western border with Ukraine, en route to an overseas trip and during his return flight when the two incidents occurred.

He added, “They attacked Moldova when my presidential plane was there. Perhaps they didn’t want to attack me personally.”

A Moldovan government spokesperson had previously said on September 9 that Zelenskyy’s flight to Norway was delayed due to Chișinău authorities closing the country’s airspace following a warning related to a drone.

On that day, two Russian drones entered Moldovan airspace; one landed in a field north of the capital, causing a fire, while the other continued into Romanian airspace.

Zelenskyy had not previously spoken about the second incident.

On Sunday, a Russian drone collided with a passenger train on the border between Ukraine and Poland, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), shortly after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other European diplomats had used the same route.