Zelensky's plane was nearly hit by a drone while en route to Norway, Olso says

The plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Moldova to Oslo, where he attended the funeral of King Harald of Norway on Wednesday, was nearly hit by a drone, the Norwegian Prime Minister said in the evening, a version nuanced by Kyiv.

"His plane was almost hit by a drone during takeoff in Moldova. That's the reality he lives in," Jonas Gahr Store told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

He provided no further details about the incident.

A source within the Ukrainian presidency offered a more nuanced version to AFP. "It was an alert in Moldova, when a Russian (drone) entered the airspace of Moldova and Romania," he explained.

This source described as "exaggerated" the claim that Mr. Zelensky would be at any risk in this situation.

For his part, Moldovan government spokesman Dumitru Ciorici said in a statement that Moldova had "closed its airspace on the afternoon of September 8, shortly after 4:30 p.m. (local time, 1:30 p.m. GMT) after a Russian drone that came from Ukraine violated its airspace."

"After 5:20 PM (local time, 2:30 PM GMT), authorities confirmed that the drone had crashed and exploded approximately 160 km from Chisinau International Airport. Flight restrictions were then lifted and the Ukrainian president's plane took off later than planned."

Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Oslo on Tuesday evening, where he held talks with Mr. Store as well as with Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide about military aid, including support for air defense, and civilian aid provided by Norway to his country.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian president joined many other foreign dignitaries to attend the funeral of King Harald, who died on August 28 at the age of 89.

Mr. Zelensky then left Norway for Canada, Mr. Støre told the NRK television channel.

Moldova is being affected by Russian drones with increasing frequency.

"In August alone, 17 drones touched down on our territory. That's more than during the whole of last year," Moldovan Prime Minister Vasile Tofan stressed on Wednesday.

These are "increasingly endangering the lives of our citizens," he stressed during a Council of Ministers meeting broadcast on Facebook, speaking of "an extremely worrying development."

In the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, a Russian drone attack on a border post between Ukraine and Moldova left two dead and three wounded on the Ukrainian side, according to Ukrainian authorities.

A Moldovan citizen travelling by car to Chisinau was also injured in the attack, according to a statement from the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The border post, located about 70 kilometers from the Ukrainian city of Odessa and 130 kilometers from Chisinau, was damaged and its activity was suspended.