Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's plane was not in the air at the same time as a Russian drone that entered Moldovan airspace on September 8, according to a source in the Office of the President of Ukraine cited by the public broadcaster Suspilne.
The source said two Russian unmanned aerial vehicles were in Moldovan airspace when Zelensky's plane was due to depart Moldova for Oslo, Norway. Ukrainian officials tracked the drones' movements and waited for them to disappear from radar before the aircraft took off, a sequence also supported by flight data from AirNavRadar. The plane had not yet been airborne at that point, the source said.
Ukraine proposed deploying F-16 fighter jets to shoot down the drone, but this did not happen, according to the source.
Drone's flight path over the region
One of the drones crossed the Ukrainian-Moldovan border in Ukraine's Odesa region at 16:20 and flew toward Moldova, the source said. At 16:38 it entered Romanian airspace and penetrated around 70 kilometres before returning to Moldovan airspace at about 17:04. It was lost from radar near the village of Sturzeni at 17:15.
The source said the drone likely crashed. The movement of the second drone was not tracked. AirNavRadar data showed Zelensky's plane left Moldovan airspace at 17:30, meaning both the presidential office's information and the radar data indicate the aircraft and the drone were never airborne simultaneously.
Norwegian leader's earlier account
Zelensky, Ukraine's president since 2019, has led the country through Russia's ongoing invasion, which began in February 2022. Moldova, a small country bordering Ukraine and Romania, has repeatedly reported Russian drones straying into its airspace during the war. F-16 fighter jets have been supplied to Ukraine by Western allies to help counter Russian aerial attacks.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store had earlier said that Zelensky's plane nearly collided with a drone at the airport in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, from which the Ukrainian leader had flown to Oslo the previous day.
