Ukraine and Moldova on Wednesday played down claims from Norway’s Prime Minister that a plane carrying President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was almost hit by a drone as it flew to Oslo.
Jonas Gahr Store told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that Zelenskyy’s plane was “almost hit by a drone when it was taking off from Moldova”.
But a source in the Ukrainian presidency described the claim that Zelenskyy was at risk as “exaggerated”.
“It was an alert in Moldova when a Russian [drone] entered Moldovan and Romanian airspace,” the source told AFP.
In Chisinau, Government spokesman Dumitru Ciorici said Moldova closed its airspace on Tuesday afternoon just after 4.30pm local time due to a Russian drone that entered from the direction of Ukraine.
“After 5.20pm, the authorities confirmed that the drone had come down and exploded ... some 160km from Chisinau International Airport.
“Flight restrictions were then lifted. For the same reason, the plane of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took off ... later than scheduled.”
Zelenskyy arrived in Oslo on Tuesday evening local time and held talks with Store, Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide on Norwegian military aid, including air-defence support and civilian assistance.
On Wednesday, he joined a host of other foreign dignitaries at the funeral of Norway’s King Harald, who died on August 28, aged 89.
Zelenskyy left Norway afterwards, headed for Canada and talks with leaders there, Store told NRK.
- AFP