Russian drones over Moldova: departure of Zelensky's plane from Chisinau delayed

This is a story that the morning edition did not cover, and it emerges alongside one that it did cover: the state funeral of King Harald V of Norway, in Oslo. Volodymyr Zelensky was traveling to the Norwegian capital for the ceremony dedicated to the sovereign, who died on 28 August. The departure from Moldova, however, has become an episode in its own right.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre stated on 9 September to the public broadcaster NRK that the Ukrainian president’s plane risked a collision with a drone during takeoff from Moldovan territory. The statement was picked up by several outlets, including Lenta.ru and Tengrinews, the latter via a DW report. We do not quote the exact wording: it is circulating in Russian translation of the Norwegian original, and a translation of a translation is not material to be put in quotation marks.

What Chisinau confirms, and what it does not confirm

A Moldovan government spokesperson confirmed to Reuters that the departure of the presidential plane was delayed due to the drone threat (Liga.net). The delay, then, is a fact acknowledged by the competent authority. The near-collision during takeoff, by contrast, is for now the account of a third-party head of government, relayed to a broadcaster.

The distinction is not academic, because the difference between the two versions is significant: on one side a flight held on the ground as a precaution, on the other a presidential aircraft narrowly missed in the air. Russian sources are also circulating a denial attributed to Chisinau regarding an attempt to shoot down the plane with a drone (Rambler/novosti): we report this too as a reported statement, not as an established fact.

The drones over Moldovan territory

On this point the picture is more solid. According to Moldovan officials, two Russian drones entered the country’s airspace: one crashed in a field in the north, causing a fire; the other continued on a trajectory toward Romania (NewsMaker).

Moldovan police reported on 9 September the discovery of a drone that had crashed in the Rîșcani district: it exploded on impact and contained fragmentation elements. No injuries were reported. This detail about the fragments is what distinguishes a reconnaissance aircraft from a munition, and it comes from the police themselves, that is, from a party that examined the wreckage.

Chisinau’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs went further than the aerial episode: it accused Russia of a deliberate attack on the Tudora-Starokazacie border post and of justifying the strike with false claims about arms shipments. This is a formal accusation from a government, and we report it as such, attributed.

What we do not know

We do not have, in the available material, any Russian version of events or an independent technical reconstruction of the trajectories. We do not know whether the drone that crashed in Rîșcani is the same one spotted near the airport, nor how close it passed to the presidential plane: the word “near” from Støre’s mouth is not a measurement.

The verifiable and consequential fact remains the third one: an aircraft that entered through Moldovan airspace and exited toward Romania, that is, toward the territory of a member state of the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance. This is the element against which institutional reactions will be measured in the coming hours.