Norwegian government gives further details on threat to Zelenskyy's plane

Norwegian government officials have said that the drone incident over Moldova mentioned by Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, as far as they know, delayed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's flight, but it is unclear whether the aircraft itself was directly threatened.

Source: European Pravda, citing Norwegian public broadcaster NRK

Details: The state secretary at the Norwegian Prime Minister's Office told journalists that the drone incident over Moldova mentioned by Støre had delayed Zelenskyy's departure, but it is unclear whether there had been a direct threat to the Ukrainian president's aircraft.

"There was a threat in the airspace over Moldova because of a drone, which delayed Zelenskyy's departure for Oslo. These are threats that he faces every day. It is not known how close the drones were to his aircraft," the official said.

Norwegian Finance Minister and former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said they had learned about the incident from Zelenskyy during a meeting on the evening of 8 September.

"He told us about it last night when we had our meeting. I can't go into details, but he was delayed and there were certain threats to the aircraft. But I don't know enough about the details to say more," Stoltenberg said.

Background:

• Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that a drone had almost crashed into the plane carrying the Ukrainian president and First Lady when it was taking off from Moldova for Oslo.
• It is worth noting that around the time Zelenskyy's plane was due to depart from Chișinău, Moldova did temporarily restrict its airspace because of a Russian drone that had entered the country. However, no strike near Chișinău airport was reported. The drone later left Moldovan airspace and entered Romania.
• Moldova's Ministry of Defence reported an airspace violation by a drone believed to be a Shahed-type UAV. The violation of the country's airspace occurred at around 16:20 local time.
• Later, reports emerged that a drone had fallen in a field, although its type was not specified.
• Later that day, Romania scrambled two fighter jets after detecting a violation of its own airspace. Iași airport temporarily suspended operations.

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