Drone alert delays Zelenskiy’s plane, Moldova says

The departure from Moldova of a plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Norway was delayed when authorities closed the country’s airspace over a drone alert, a Moldovan government spokesperson said on Wednesday.

The president’s aircraft was cleared for takeoff on Tuesday once it had been established that a Russian drone had come down on Moldovan territory, the spokesperson said in a written statement to Reuters.

Three departures and four arrivals were delayed while Moldovan airspace was closed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, arrive at Calgary International Airport in Calgary, Canada, on Wednesday.

Photo: Reuters

Two Russian drones entered Moldovan airspace, officials said on Tuesday. One landed in a field north of the capital, triggering a fire, while the second carried on into Romanian airspace.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu denounced the drone intrusions as a “serious threat to people’s lives” and condemned a Russian drone attack on a border crossing with Ukraine that killed two people.

Zelenskiy was traveling to Oslo for the funeral of the king of Norway.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere on Wednesday told public broadcaster NRK that Zelenskiy’s plane had nearly been struck by a drone.

“His plane was almost hit by a drone as it was about to take off from Moldova. That is the reality he is facing,” said Stoere, who did not say what his source was for the information or how close the drone came.

Zelenskiy attended the funeral of King Harald V of Norway on Wednesday, marching behind his coffin along with other heads of state in central Oslo.