The airplane transporting Vladimir Zelenski to Oslo, where he was to attend the funeral of the King of Norway, was “nearly hit” by a drone. The statement was made on Wednesday evening by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
The message quickly went viral. The authorities in Chisinau informed shortly after that the aircraft was on the ground when a drone flew over Moldova’s airspace. The spokesperson for the cabinet of ministers, Dumitru Ciorici, told the press that at that moment the country’s airspace was closed.
“The airspace of the Republic of Moldova was closed on the afternoon of September 8, after 16:30, following the detection of an unauthorized Russian drone entering from Ukraine. The decision was made to protect the aircrafts in the country’s airspace at that time. The measure caused delays for three departing flights and four landing ones.”
After 17.20, the authorities received confirmation that the drone had exploded on the ground, in the Mihăilenii Vechi area, Râșcani district, about 160 km from Chișinău International Airport. Subsequently, flight restrictions were lifted,” the official reported.
The Ambassador of Moldova to the USA, Vlad Kulminski, believes that the incident might not have been a mere coincidence.
“Most likely, this is not a coincidence, because we do not believe in reaction drones simply flying over Moldovan territory for surveillance purposes, exactly at the moment when the Ukrainian president’s plane is on the ground, at the airport,” the diplomat commented.
Speaker Igor Grosu pointed out that the aircraft was on the ground and therefore, in his opinion, it could not be the target of the unmanned aerial vehicle.
“The plane was on the ground. This is the dissonance between what the Prime Minister of Norway announced and the reality on the field. I don’t know the details, I saw what was written in the Norwegian press, that’s why we had to intervene and explain,” said the President of the Parliament.
The Kremlin denied that the Ukrainian president’s plane was threatened by a drone, after it took off on Tuesday from Chisinau to Oslo.
“As for this fictitious threat to Zelensky’s plane, it is something that never existed. It is something that the Ukrainians themselves have acknowledged,” said the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov.
The Norwegian Finance Minister, former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, mentioned in discussions with journalists that Zelenski reported the incident to those present at the meetings he had in Oslo, according to Agerpres, but did not provide many details about the discussion.