A Russian Shahed drone came close enough to Zelenskyy’s plane in Moldova to prompt an airspace closure just before the Ukrainian president departed for Oslo on Tuesday evening, Norway’s prime minister has said. Jonas Gahr Støre told the broadcaster NRK on Wednesday: ‘His plane was almost hit by a drone as it took off in Moldova. That’s his reality.’
Støre did not provide further details, nor did he specify the distance between the drone and the aircraft. The statement nonetheless put the incident in unusually direct terms for a NATO leader, describing a near-miss rather than the more restrained language that would follow from Kyiv.
What the Zelenskyy Plane Moldova Drone Incident Reveals
Moldovan authorities said a drone had entered their country’s airspace from the Ukrainian border on Tuesday afternoon, with preliminary data identifying it as a Shahed, Russia’s principal attack drone. The timing of the entry, at about 4:20 p.m., aligns with the window in which Zelenskyy would have been preparing to depart. Officials temporarily closed Moldovan airspace and later confirmed his aircraft was cleared for take-off only after the drone had exited the country’s airspace, Moldova’s government told Reuters on Wednesday.
According to RBC-Ukraine, the drone crossed the border near the village of Slavianorebca and was heading in the direction of Bender. That flight path placed it in the vicinity of the departure zone at a moment of particular sensitivity.
Moldovan authorities described the aircraft as resembling a Russian Geran-type drone, a designation commonly associated with the Shahed family of attack drones Russia deploys in Ukraine, according to Dainik Jagran English. The Geran label is the name Russia uses for its domestically designated variant of the Iranian-origin Shahed design. Practically speaking, the distinction between Shahed and Geran is largely semantic in the context of Ukraine’s air war; both refer to the same category of loitering munition used in mass attacks.
A Ukrainian presidential source subsequently offered a more measured account, characterising the incident as an airspace alert after a Russian drone entered Moldovan and Romanian airspace, according to Dainik Jagran English. That framing stops short of confirming a near-miss in the sense Støre described, leaving open a gap between the Norwegian prime minister’s account and Kyiv’s.
The Drone’s Trajectory and Where It Came Down
The trajectory of the Shahed was not confined to Moldova. A separate public statement from officials said the drone had initially flown into Romania before returning to Moldovan airspace. It eventually crashed in the northwestern district of Glodeni, in an area near Mihăileni Vechi, around 160 kilometres from Chișinău International Airport, according to Dainik Jagran English. No casualties were reported, though the crash started a fire.
The incident fits a broader pattern. The Kremlin can launch hundreds of Shaheds and decoy drones at Ukraine in a single day, and some have been documented crossing into neighbouring countries including Poland and Romania. NATO has accused Russia of intentionally sending drones into Eastern Europe to test its reaction to such potential threats. Moscow denies having any such plans.
Zelenskyy had flown to Moldova before heading to Oslo to attend King Harald of Norway’s funeral, before continuing to Ottawa to meet with Canadian leaders. The Ukrainian president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
Moldova’s formal readout of the incident, combined with the entry route near Slavianorebca confirmed by RBC-Ukraine, provides a clearer picture of the drone’s path than Norwegian or Ukrainian officials have so far given publicly. Støre’s remarks to NRK remain the most direct statement by any allied leader that the Zelenskyy plane faced a threat in Moldova during the episode.