Romania rejects Ukraine’s claim that Kalibr missiles flew over its airspace
Ukraine’s top military official has accused Russia of launching two missiles at a target in his country and on the territory of NATO member Romania and Moldova. Bucharest and Chisinau said there had been airspace violations in Moldova but not in Romania.
Valery Zaluzhny, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stated that two Kalibr cruise missiles fired by a Russian warship in the Black Sea passed through Ukrainian airspace, then over Moldova and then Romania, before when returning to Ukraine near a border junction. The reported incident occurred on Friday morning amid an alleged Russian airstrike.
The Moldovan Defense Ministry said a missile had entered Moldova’s airspace near the town of Mocra in the breakaway Transnistria region. The timing of the alleged violation coincided with the time that Zaluzhny reported it.
The ministry said the shell flew back to Ukraine via the town of Cosauti in the Soroca district. Cosauti is located about 120 km from the junction of the borders of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.
The statement did not attribute the missile to Russia, but the Moldovan Foreign Ministry pointed the finger at Moscow. It said it had summoned the Russian ambassador to Chisinau, Oleg Vasnetsov, to protest the violation of Moldova’s airspace.
Romania’s Defense Ministry denied that its airspace was violated. It reportedly tracked a missile launch from a Russian warship sailing near Crimea as it passed through Ukraine, Moldova and again Ukraine. The statement said that the part of the orbit closest to the Romanian border is about 35 kilometers away. The military quickly diverted the two MiG-21s from the NATO air patrol mission.
The Russian government would not immediately comment on the statements.
In mid-November, senior officials in Kiev accused Russia of deliberately attacking Polish territory in a missile attack on targets in Ukraine. Two civilians were killed in a border village in the incident. President Vladimir Zelensky called for “collective action” against Russia, allegedly invoking NATO’s collective defense provisions.
Warsaw later said that the projectile was most likely a Ukrainian air defense interceptor. Ukraine doubled down on the charges, although Zelensky later said he did not “100 sure” Who does the rocket belong to?
Moscow stressed that the images of the crash in the border village clearly identified the flying object as a Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile.
