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Moldova shut down its airspace for more than an hour overnight after two unidentified drones violated its territory, prompting President Maia Sandu on Saturday to accuse Russia of endangering civilian lives while attacking neighboring Ukraine.
The defense ministry said the emergency closure began just before 11:00pm local time Friday and lasted approximately one hour and 10 minutes. Two commercial flights were diverted to Romania during the incident, while another aircraft preparing to depart from Chisinau was temporarily grounded.
Moldovan radar systems failed to detect the drones, but Ukrainian border authorities confirmed the incursion, according to the defense ministry. Both aircraft eventually left Moldovan airspace and moved into Ukrainian territory, with no debris or dangerous materials found on the ground.
Sandu on Saturday characterized the incident as a "brutal attack" that was "neither the language of diplomacy, nor of a country claiming to negotiate peace."
"On their way to kill civilians, Russian drones again violated Moldovan airspace," the president wrote on X. "We condemn these attacks and stand with Ukraine."
The defense ministry branded the overnight violations as "hostile acts of intimidation and destabilisation" and strongly condemned what it called illegal and dangerous actions that endangered civilian aviation and human lives.
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The small Eastern European nation, positioned between Ukraine and Romania, has repeatedly reported airspace violations since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Moldova's geographic location places it directly along potential flight paths for drones and missiles targeting western Ukraine.
Earlier same week, Moldovan authorities reported that a drone had crashed on its territory, with six drones in total overflying the country. On Wednesday, Moldova summoned the Russian envoy to deliver a formal protest note and placed the crashed drone outside its foreign ministry building.
The defense ministry described Friday night's airspace closure as an "emergency measure" taken after the drones illegally entered Moldovan territory, creating what officials called a direct threat to aviation safety.
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