Zelensky Says Russia Attacked His Presidential Aircraft With Drones Over Moldova Twice in a Week

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told American television network CBS News that the Russian armed forces attacked the aircraft carrying the head of state twice over the past weeks. According to him, both attacks were directly linked to the location of the presidential aircraft and, in his assessment, were part of a Russian strategy of intimidation. Ukrainian officials later confirmed that all members of the presidential delegation are safe.

Zelensky's Statement in the CBS News Interview

Addressing the CBS News audience, Zelensky linked the strikes on Moldovan territory to the presence of his aircraft there. “My presidential plane was in Moldova, and that is why they attacked Moldova. When we were coming home, again through Chișinău, they did the same thing,” he said. Thus, according to Kyiv's version, there are two episodes: one while the aircraft was in Moldova and a second on the return through Chișinău.

Timeline of the Incidents Over Moldova

As Ukrainian media reminded, one of the incidents was previously disclosed publicly by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who reported that the Ukrainian president's aircraft “was nearly shot down by a drone while taking off from Moldova” on its way to Norway. The Moldovan government, in turn, confirmed that Zelensky's departure for Norway on September 8 was delayed due to a Russian drone in the country's airspace. Permission to take off was granted only after it was learned that a Russian drone had crashed and exploded near the village of Vechiulele Vechi (Stare Mykhailiny) in Rîșcani District; the crash site was located 160 km from Chișinău International Airport.

Confirmations from Chișinău and Oslo

Additional context was provided by Moldova's ambassador to the United States, Vladislav Culminsky, who stated that the Russian drone that violated the country's airspace may have been deliberately heading toward the Ukrainian president's aircraft. The body of these statements — from the Norwegian prime minister to the Moldovan ambassador — paints a picture in which the incident over Moldova is viewed as a direct threat to the presidential aircraft, rather than a random border violation.

Strategy of Intimidation

Zelensky emphasized that such attacks are part of a Russian strategy aimed at intimidating him personally and other foreign leaders. In his logic, the choice of target — the presidential aircraft in the airspace of a country neutral with respect to the conflict — is intended to exert psychological pressure both on the president himself and on the foreign politicians he interacts with. The Ukrainian side, meanwhile, stresses that no members of the delegation were harmed.

Contradictory Data

There is a significant inconsistency in how the incident is characterized in the parties' statements. On the one hand, Zelensky and Moldovan ambassador Culminsky speak of the drone's deliberate movement toward the presidential aircraft, i.e., an intentional attack. On the other hand, Ukrainian officials at the time of the incident noted that “it was not clear whether this incident was deliberate.” In other words, the confirmed facts remain the violation of Moldovan airspace and the delay of the September 8 departure, while the interpretation of the event as a deliberate attack on the president's aircraft rests primarily on Zelensky's statements and on the ambassador's conditional wording (“may have been deliberately heading”). The distinction between the confirmed fact of a violation and the presumed intent persists.