Zelensky told CBS News that the first incident occurred while his presidential plane was in Moldova, and that a second took place days later as he returned home through Chisinau. "In Moldova was my presidential plane, and so they attacked Moldova. They used Moldova's airspace. Maybe they didn't want to attack me personally... We didn't tell this to the media, but when we were returning home, again through Chisinau, they did the same thing," CBS News quoted him as saying. Asked by the interviewer whether Moscow was trying to intimidate him this way, Zelensky answered in the affirmative.
The first of the two incidents was reported publicly by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, who said Zelensky's plane nearly collided with a drone as it left Moldova for Oslo. Moldova's government press service confirmed the country's airspace was closed after a drone appeared, delaying the Ukrainian president's departure from Chisinau. Moldova Libera reported that the drone alert came at 16:30; it later emerged that the drone exploded near the village of Starye Mikhaïleny in the Riscani district, roughly 160 kilometers from Chisinau airport. The restrictions were lifted and Zelensky's plane departed.
An AFP source in the Ukrainian president's office called Store's account of a near-collision an "exaggeration." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the threat to Zelensky's plane was "ephemeral" and that "the Ukrainians themselves acknowledged it."
The second incident, according to Zelensky, took place during his return trip to Ukraine "a few days later," The Moscow Times reported. One or two drones again entered Moldovan airspace. The episode had not been reported previously. After the second incident, Ukrainian officials said all members of the presidential delegation were safe and that it was not clear at the time of the attempted attack whether it was deliberate. Moldova reported incursions by several Russian drones into its airspace on September 12 and 14.
Zelensky links such actions to a Russian strategy of intimidating him and other foreign leaders. He said Russia has often acted similarly in Moldova, Romania and occasionally Poland: "They show strength, and you understand that when they show this strength, no one answers them."
The remarks followed a Russian drone strike near a special railway train carrying European diplomats and officials from Ukraine to Poland. Zelensky said Russia knew the train carried "Europeans, Americans, big delegations." The Moscow Times noted that Kyiv believes the target of the attack at the Yahodyn station near the Polish border was a diplomatic train carrying national security advisers from several EU countries and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Former CIA Director David Petraeus was on another train at the station at the time of the attack. Russia's Foreign Ministry commented on the incident by saying Western politicians and diplomats should soberly assess the risks involved in such trips.
Accounts differ: Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Zelensky's plane nearly collided with a drone as it left Moldova, while an AFP source in the Ukrainian president's office called that an "exaggeration"; Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the threat was "ephemeral."