Moldova says Zelenskyy’s plane was not under direct drone fire

A Russian drone did enter Moldova’s airspace on 8 September and forced a temporary flight halt at Chișinău. That much is confirmed. What is not confirmed is that the aircraft carrying Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “almost hit.”

EUalive reported the stronger version on Thursday morning, relying on Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s remarks to NRK. Støre said Zelenskyy’s plane “was almost hit by a drone as it was taking off from Moldova” and called it “the reality he has to live in.” Other outlets used the same quote. That wording overstated what Moldovan authorities have since documented.

Zelenskyy’s plane faced drone threat while leaving Moldova, Norway says

What Chișinău explains

Moldovan government spokesman Dumitru Ciorici issued a clarification after Støre’s comments. Airspace over central Moldova was closed shortly after 16:30 local time on 8 September because a Russian drone had entered from Ukraine. The measure was taken to protect aircraft then in or approaching Moldovan airspace. Three departing flights and four arriving ones were delayed. Zelenskyy’s plane was among the delayed departures. It was on the ground at Chișinău International Airport.

After 17:20, authorities confirmed the drone had come down and exploded near Mihăilenii Vechi in Rîșcani district — about 160 kilometres north of the airport. Restrictions were then lifted. The presidential flight left later than scheduled. Ciorici did not say the drone came close to the aircraft or that it was targeted.

Olga Rosca, foreign-policy adviser to President Maia Sandu, put it the same way: flights, including Zelenskyy’s, were cleared only once the drone was confirmed down. The New York Times, reporting the same account, noted that Støre’s “almost hit” claim could not be independently verified and that Moldova did not describe a direct threat to the Ukrainian president. A spokeswoman for Støre’s office later told NRK it was not known how close any drone had come to the plane.

What can fairly be said

A jet-powered Russian drone (described by Moldovan police as consistent with a Geran/Shahed-type system) did violate Moldova’s airspace, crossed briefly into Romania, re-entered Moldova and crashed far from Chișinău. NATO aircraft in Romania tracked part of the route. That is a real airspace violation and a legitimate reason to ground traffic. It is not the same as a near-miss with a head-of-state aircraft on takeoff.

Some officials have gone further in private or in interviews. Moldova’s ambassador to the United States, Vladislav Kulminski, told CNN the timing made an accident hard to believe while Zelenskyy’s plane sat at the airport, while adding that an investigation was still under way. That is an inference, not the operational record released in Chișinău.

Why this correction matters

Støre’s phrase travelled because it was vivid and fitted a pattern of Russian drones spilling into Moldova and Romania. Headlines, including ours, led with the near-hit rather than the precautionary closure and the 160-kilometre distance. Readers are entitled to the narrower account now given by the government that closed the airspace and then reopened it.

The drone incursion happened. The delay happened. A near-collision with Zelenskyy’s plane has not been shown. This was not a Russian attempt to kill Zelenskyy.

Caption: (L-R) German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store walk behind the bier carrying the coffin og Norway’s King Harald V from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral for the funeral, in Oslo, Norway, 09 September 2026. The ceremony marks the country’s first state funeral for a monarch since the death of King Harald’s father, King Olav V, in 1991. EPA/Gorm Kallestad / POOL