Moldova's airspace was forced shut on September 9 after Russian drones were reported to have entered the country's airspace on two separate occasions while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was on board his aircraft, preparing to depart for Norway. The incident underscored the growing risks of the Russia-Ukraine war spreading into neighbouring states and highlighted Moldova's precarious position as it navigates the conflict without being a party to the fighting.
According to a Moldovan government spokesperson, the delay to Zelenskyy's flight came after authorities received multiple alerts about unidentified aerial objects — widely understood to be drones — operating within Moldova's sovereign airspace. The military response involved scrambling interceptors and closing the affected corridors while the threat was assessed. Zelenskyy's plane remained on the tarmac until the airspace was declared safe, after which the delegation eventually continued its journey to Oslo.
This is not the first time Moldova has found itself caught in the crossfire of the wider regional conflict. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, there have been repeated incidents of drones and stray missiles entering Moldovan territory, often originating from the breakaway region of Transnistria, where Russian troops remain stationed. Romanian NATO forces have occasionally been dispatched to investigate and intercept such intrusions given Moldova's lack of a substantial air defence capability.
The timing of this latest incident is politically significant. Zelenskyy had been travelling through Moldova en route to Norway for consultations on Ukraine's European Union candidacy and broader security arrangements. The repeated drone incursions during his transit have drawn fresh international attention to Moldova's vulnerability and to the question of whether Moscow's drone campaign is deliberately testing the willingness of neighbouring countries to respond.
Moldovan officials have repeatedly called on Kyiv and Moscow alike to respect the country's territorial integrity and to prevent their military operations from spilling across the border. Russia has denied targeting Moldovan infrastructure, though it has not clarified the origin of the drones that entered the airspace. Analysts note that even accidental violations carry serious geopolitical weight for a small, economically fragile nation sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, both of which have urged Moldova to accelerate its EU accession path precisely because of its exposure to Russian influence.
