On Monday evening, several Ukrainian Telegram channels, which claim that they track the movement of Russian missiles and drones, said that Ukrainian drones had crossed Moldovan airspace. Moreover, according to the administrators, some were allegedly launched from our country, while others were heading to Romania.
The first rumors about crossing the country’s airspace appeared around 21:00. Information about Russian drones first appeared in several Telegram channels of the neighboring country. After that, blogger Dumitru Ciorici and several media resources from Chisinau started broadcasting the information.
Ukrainian sources wrote that one of the drones flew over our country and even showed the trajectory of the flight. Thus, according to the published image, without specifying where they got this information, the administrators of the Telegram channel claim that there are three directions of movement of the drone: Hincesti, Cimislia, and Strasheni.
Shortly after, the Moldovan Defense Ministry reacted and denied the rumors.
“Regarding the alleged risk of a drone entering the territory of the Republic of Moldova, we inform you that no drone launched by the Russian Federation this evening in Ukraine crossed the Republic of Moldova. The Ukrainian side has confirmed to us that all drones launched over the Odesa region up to this time have been destroyed or blocked by Ukrainian air defense means,” the agency said in a statement.
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Then, at 11 a.m., Ukrainian air defense forces reported that an unidentified flying object was heading toward Khmelnytskyi from the border with Moldova. There was no official information. But Telegram channels again posted information that it was not known what kind of aircraft had been observed in the sky. Some of them allegedly moved against the wind and changed direction to Romania. The authors of the messages suggested that they were drones.
Despite the Moldovan Defense Ministry’s claims, Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that the drone managed to cross the borderline, stayed in Moldovan airspace for some time, and then was shot down.
“One of the drones, sent to the Odessa region, performed complicated maneuvers. The crossing of the state border on the Ukrainian-Moldovan section was provoked. We recorded the border crossing however, having flown a few dozen kilometers, the drone returned to Ukrainian airspace and was destroyed by air defense forces,” said Natalia Gumenyuk, spokeswoman for the Southern Command, as quoted by UNIAN.
The official said that the Chisinau administration did not have sufficient information when it announced that the drone had not flown over Moldovan airspace and that this was not the first such situation. “Perhaps the previous information was not verified,” Gumenyuk noted.