Moldova summons Russia’s ambassador after missile crossed into airspace

Moldova on Friday said it would summon Russia’s ambassador after Chisinau claimed that a Russian missile crossed the airspace of the ex-Soviet republic.

The ambassador would be summoned “to indicate to the Russian side the unacceptable violation of our airspace by a Russian missile that today flew over the sovereign territory of the Republic of Moldova,” the foreign ministry said in a press release.

Moldova’s ministry of defense said it detected a missile earlier Friday that crossed the airspace of Moldova with Ukraine as direction.

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“MFA notes that the Russian side continues its war of aggression against Ukraine and the missile attacks against our neighboring country affects directly and negatively our country,” the foreign ministry added in the statement.

Last October, Moldova had already summoned Moscow’s envoy after it said that Russian cruise missiles targeting Ukraine had crossed its airspace.

The latest incident follows an announcement Thursday by Moldova’s intelligence service that Russia was acting to destabilize the country.

The announcement comes after comments by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Kyiv had intercepted a plan by Moscow “to break the democracy of Moldova and establish control over Moldova.”

“We are firmly rejecting the recent unfriendly statements and actions regarding the Republic of Moldova, which are considered absolutely unacceptable by our people,” Moldovan foreign ministry spokesman Daniel Voda said on Friday.

Like many former Soviet territories, the country of 2.6 million people wedged between Ukraine and Romania is the backdrop for a tug-of-war between pro-Russian and pro-Western political currents.

The country led by pro-European President Maia Sandu applied to join the European Union just after Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

Russia maintains troops in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.

Earlier on Friday, a top Ukrainian general said two Russian missiles crossed into Romanian and Moldovan airspace before entering Ukraine.

Romania, however, denied Russian missiles flew over the country, and said it detected an “aerial target launched from the Black Sea from a ship of the Russian Federation” but “at no point did it intersect with Romania's airspace.”

“The closest point of the target’s trajectory from Romania’s airspace was registered by the radar systems at approximately 35 kilometers (22 miles) north-east of the border,” the statement added.

Two Romanian Air Force MiG-21 LanceR aircraft on air policing duty under NATO command were sent toward the north of Romania “to supplement our reaction options,” the statement added.

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