Press secretary to the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov commented on the incident involving the aircraft on which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was flying from Chisinau to Norway on September 8. According to Peskov, the previously announced threat to the plane from a drone allegedly did not exist. This is reported by RBC-Ukraine citing TASS. "As for the ephemeral threat to the plane, there was none. The Ukrainians themselves have acknowledged this," the Kremlin representative stated, adding that, in his assessment, Ukraine "continues to resort to various provocations," attempting to "drag its Western curators into the war."
Position of Kyiv and Oslo: the incident did occur
The Moscow version contradicts the statements previously made from Kyiv and Oslo. The first to report the incident was the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, who stated that the Ukrainian president's plane "was nearly shot down by a drone during takeoff from Moldova." Thus, at the official level in Scandinavia, the incident is classified as a real threat, not as an "ephemeral" event, as Peskov described it.
Confirmation from the Moldovan authorities
The Government of Moldova confirmed that Zelensky's departure from the country to Norway on September 8 was indeed delayed due to a Russian drone in the airspace of the republic. Permission for takeoff was granted only after it became known that the Russian drone had crashed and exploded near the village of Starîe Mihaileni in the Rîșcani district. According to available data, the crash site was located approximately 160 km from Chisinau International Airport.
Consequences for the airport and the ambassador's assessment
Due to the declared air alert, three outbound flights and four inbound flights were delayed at Chisinau Airport. Particular attention should be paid to the statement by the Ambassador of Moldova to the USA, Vladislav Kulminsky: according to him, the Russian drone that violated the country's airspace may have been flying deliberately toward the plane of the President of Ukraine. This assessment indicates that the incident is viewed in Chisinau not as a random appearance of a UAV, but as a possible deliberate action.
Contradictory data
There is a direct contradiction between the positions of the parties. On the one hand, Dmitry Peskov claims that there was "no threat" to the plane and that this was "acknowledged by the Ukrainians themselves," calling the incident "ephemeral." On the other hand, the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, stated that the plane "was nearly shot down by a drone," while the Government of Moldova confirmed the flight delay due to a Russian drone in the airspace and its crash in the Rîșcani district. Moreover, the Ambassador of Moldova to the USA allowed for a deliberate flight of the UAV toward the aircraft. Thus, the Kremlin's version of the absence of any threat finds no confirmation in the statements of Norway and Moldova, which, on the contrary, record a real incident and its consequences for the airport's operations.
