Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's flight from Moldova to Norway was delayed after it was almost hit by a Russian drone, Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Store said. Officials in Moldova said they had to shut down the country’s airspace because of a drone incursion as Russian forces targeted the border between that country and Ukraine this week. That is the reality he lives in,” Store said yesterday.
The drone exploded around 160km from Moldova’s main Chișinău International Airport. The airspace restrictions were eventually lifted and Zelensky’s plane took off later than scheduled. At least two people were killed yesterday when a swarm of Russian drones hit a border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova in the southern region of Odesa.
The drone that entered Moldovan airspace on Tuesday crossed into neighbouring Romania, a Nato member, where it was tracked through several northeastern counties. Another Russian drone had crashed in a sunflower field on Tuesday causing four fires to break out, Moldovan police said. Russian drones hit a border crossing between Ukraine and Moldova in the southern region of Odesa, killing two people, Ukrainian and Moldovan officials said, as Moscow targets trade and logistics routes to cause economic damage.
Two civilians were killed and three wounded in the attack on the Starokozache border crossing in southwest Ukraine, Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram. The checkpoint, about a kilometre (half a mile) from Moldovan territory, is used daily by thousands of people and hundreds of cars. Moldovan officials said passenger and vehicle traffic was halted by the attack.
Russia has struck five border crossings in recent weeks, the Ukrainian border guards said — four on the border with Moldova and one on its border with Romania, a Nato member. A flight scheduled to carry Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky from Moldova to Norway was delayed when authorities closed Moldova’s airspace because of a drone incursion, a government spokesperson said Wednesday. Moldovan police said a Russian drone crashed on Tuesday in a sunflower field on the outskirts of a village in Riscani district, which caused four fires to break out but no injuries.
Moldovan authorities confirmed the drone came down and exploded 160km (100 miles) from Chișinău International Airport. The airspace restrictions were lifted and Zelensky’s plane took off later than scheduled. Turkey is set to start drilling a challenging oil-targeted well in the western Black Sea, Ankara announced on Wednesday.
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