A Russian drone entering Moldova’s airspace delayed the departure of a plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Norway on Tuesday, a Moldovan official said.
The eastern European country, which borders Ukraine, closed its airspace after detecting an incursion of a jet-propelled drone, officials said.
Zelensky’s aircraft was waiting at Chișinău International Airport in the Moldovan capital and was cleared for take-off once it had been established the drone had come down. It exploded some 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the airport, the Associated Press reported.
Moldova’s ambassador to the US, Vladislav Kulminski, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto the incident was likely “not an accident.”
“We do not believe in jet propelled drones just flying into Moldova’s territory for surveillance purposes while [the] Ukrainian president’s airplane is on the ground at the airport,” Kulminski told CNN.
