Russian Drone Incursion Delays Zelensky Flight from Moldova
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A Plane Carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Delayed by Russian Drone
By Dan Sales and James Landale, Diplomatic correspondents, Reporting from Kyiv
Published 21 minutes ago
A plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was delayed by a Russian drone this week as his jet prepared to take off from Moldova to fly to Oslo.
Zelensky and his wife Olena were on their plane at Chisinau, ahead of Wednesday’s funeral of Norway’s King Harald V, when the unmanned Russian aircraft crossed over the Moldovan border.
The drone prompted an immediate airspace shutdown, and Zelensky’s jet was left on the runway for around an hour before it was cleared for takeoff.
The flight was only authorised after it was confirmed the drone had come down 160km (100 miles) away in the village of Mihăilenii Vechi.
Delayed Flight and Drone Incident
Zelensky’s plane had been due to take off at around 16:30 local time (14:30 GMT) from Chisinau International Airport.
Moldovan government spokesman Dumitru Ciorici told the BBC that Moldova had closed its airspace after noticing a Russian drone had entered it from the direction of Ukraine.
"Three departures and four arrivals were delayed as a result," he added.
"After 17:20 (15:20 GMT), the authorities confirmed that the drone had come down and exploded… some 160 kilometres from Chisinau International Airport."
Safe Arrival in Oslo
Zelensky and his wife arrived safely in Oslo on Tuesday evening, where he held talks with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and other officials about military aid.
They joined other dignitaries for King Harald’s funeral before flying on to Iceland for a brief visit and then to Canada for further talks.
Concerns and Diminished Threat
There had initially been concerns about the threat from the drone incursion when he was in Chisinau.
Støre had told public broadcaster NRK: "His flight was almost hit by a drone when it was taking off from Moldova."
However, a Ukraine source told Agence France-Presse the risk had been "exaggerated."
Increasing Drone Activity
Russian drones have been targeting Ukraine with increasing intensity in recent weeks, and an attack on a Moldovan border crossing at Starokozache killed two people overnight into Tuesday.
The Russian army has new jet-powered unmanned aircraft that are much faster and more difficult to intercept.
Analysis by BBC Verify has shown the capital Kyiv has now suffered more air raid alerts than at any time since 2022 – on average ten times a day.
Ukraine has also had success with its use of drones and announced on Thursday what it called a "record hit" on Russia gas plants.
Drones flew more than 3,000km (1,864 miles) into Russia on Wednesday to hit a gas processing plant in the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous district of Northern Siberia.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said this was its deepest attack into Russia since the war began. Yamalo-Nenets is one of Russia’s key oil and gas processing regions.
Overnight, Russian forces attacked a petrol station in Kyiv, seriously injuring four people.
Oil company Ukrnafta’s CEO Bohdan Kukura said on Facebook: "This is terror and intimidation of the civilian population."
Russia has attacked hundreds of Ukrainian petrol stations in recent months in an attempt to disrupt the…
