Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere stated on Wednesday (September 9th) that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had a close call with a drone as his plane was about to take off from Moldova en route to Oslo for the funeral of the Norwegian king. Stoere revealed to the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), “His plane was almost hit by a drone as it was about to take off from Moldova. This is the reality he faced.” However, he did not disclose the source of the information or how close the drone was to the aircraft.
According to Reuters, Moldovan officials have not commented on Stoere’s statement.
Zelenskiy departed for Norway on Tuesday (September 8th) to attend the funeral of King Harald V. On that day, the operations at Chisinau airport in Moldovan capital were briefly suspended due to two Russian drones entering Moldovan airspace.
Multiple flights bound for the airport had to divert or circle in the air, as reported by Flightradar24. One drone crashed in a field causing a fire, while another continued into Romanian airspace. Moldovan President Maia Sandu strongly condemned these incidents.
French news agency AFP additionally reported that former NATO Secretary General and current Norwegian Minister of Finance Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that Zelenskiy mentioned encountering trouble upon leaving Moldova during a closed-door meeting, causing a delay in his schedule and a threat to his aircraft.
Despite the mid-air scare, Zelenskiy eventually safely arrived in Norway for the funeral and held meetings with officials including Stoere, focusing on Ukraine’s air defense and the European “Freyja” missile defense system initiative.
However, insiders from the Ukrainian presidential office told AFP that the main issue that day was the Russian drones entering their airspace triggering alarms, and described the notion that Zelenskiy was personally in extreme danger as somewhat exaggerated.