Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s flight to Norway for the king’s state funeral narrowly avoided a drone as it was preparing to depart Moldova on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre disclosed the incident Wednesday in comments to public broadcaster NRK, according to the outlet. Zelenskyy’s plane later landed safely in Oslo on Tuesday evening.
“His plane was almost hit by a drone as it was about to take off from Moldova. That is the reality he is facing,” Støre said. He did not provide details on exactly how close the drone came to the Ukrainian president’s aircraft.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gestures during a meeting with Britain’s prime minister on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Evian, eastern France, June 16, 2026. (Isabel Infantes Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Moldova’s government later said the incident involved two Russian drones. Authorities temporarily closed Moldovan airspace, delaying Zelenskyy’s departure for Oslo.
The Ukrainian leader’s aircraft was cleared to leave after officials confirmed that one of the Russian drones had come down on Moldovan territory, the spokesperson told Reuters.
A photograph taken Jan. 5, 2026, shows part of the village of Cuhurestii de Jos in northern Moldova, near the Ukrainian border. (Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images)
One drone landed in a field north of the Moldovan capital and sparked a fire, while the second drone continued into Romanian airspace.
The incursions forced Chișinău International Airport to temporarily suspend arrivals and departures Tuesday, sending incoming flights into holding patterns or diverting them to neighboring countries, according to tracking data.
Moldova’s President Maia Sandu and Russian President Vladimir Putin (Horacio Villalobos Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images; Contributor/Getty Images)
Moldovan President Maia Sandu denounced the incursions as a “serious threat to people’s lives” and separately condemned a Russian drone strike on a border crossing with Ukraine that killed two people.
Zelenskyy arrived in Oslo Tuesday evening, where he discussed military aid, including air defense support and civilian assistance with Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide and Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg, according to Deutsche Welle.
The Institute for the Study of War also said a Russian Shahed drone flew through Moldovan and Romanian airspace for about an hour Tuesday before crashing in Moldova.
