Russian drones harass Moldova

A powerful explosion shook Colonita, a small village in the municipality of Chișinău, at 4.20 a.m. on September 18. Residents saw a blinding flash and heard a terrifying blast that made houses tremble. Six hours later, emergency teams found the remains of a Russian drone — including its engine — scattered across agricultural land. The device had fallen about four miles from the center of the Moldovan capital, which is home to more than 700,000 people. It had not been detected by surveillance systems, which the Defense Ministry attributed to the speed and low altitude at which it was flying.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, has not turned this former Soviet republic of 2.4 million people into a battlefield; it is constitutionally neutral and aims to join the European Union in 2030. But it has made Moldovan airspace increasingly exposed: Russian drones and missiles cross the border with an unusual frequency compared with the early years of the war and, in recent months, such incursions have become routine.

By October 7, the Defense Ministry had recorded 56 violations of Moldovan airspace this year, compared with 17 for all of 2025, 10 in 2024, six in 2023 and four in 2022. Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the cumulative total reaches 93 incidents: 56 involving drones, 12 involving decoy unmanned aircraft, and seven involving missiles. In 17 other cases the incidents involved fragments of these devices, and one involved a balloon. Up to 13 of these incidents ended with explosions on the ground, and on more than a dozen occasions airspace had to be closed for safety reasons. The trend, however, has surged in recent weeks.

On September 24, the same day the ministry published those figures, four drones crossed Moldovan skies — one of them crashed in the north of the country — and six days later three more devices entered its territory while Russia launched a new wave of attacks against Ukraine. But the most critical episode to that point came on October 3. In a matter of minutes two drones and three missiles entered Moldovan airspace and exploded. Two of those explosions occurred around 20 miles from the capital.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu, a pro-European, has warned that the war “directly endangers the lives of Moldovan citizens” and has called for a stronger European response. The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, summoned the Russian ambassador to present a formal protest. For her part, the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, called the repeated violations of Moldovan airspace “unacceptable,” framing them as part of an escalation of hybrid attacks attributed to the Kremlin in Europe. Moscow denies the accusations.

Some incursions have even forced temporary closures of Chișinău International Airport. One of the most serious incidents occurred on September 9, when a drone first crossed Moldovan airspace and then Romanian airspace before returning to Moldova. Two Spanish F-18 fighters, deployed on NATO’s enhanced air policing mission in Romania, scrambled to track the device, although they did not shoot it down. That day, the Ukrainian presidential plane scheduled to take Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Norway was forced to delay its departure from the Moldovan capital. Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, later said the aircraft had been “almost hit by a drone.”

“Concern grows as the number of drones increases,” Radu Burduja, Moldova’s former deputy defense minister (2017–2019) and now director of the Euro-Atlantic Institute for Resilience Building (EAIBR), tells EL PAÍS. “So far none has fallen on a populated place, but it will likely happen at any moment and, if it does, it will generate major unrest, even possible riots,” adds the former Moldovan military representative to NATO and the EU.

Chișinău has limited capabilities to counter the threat. Its surveillance network does not cover the territory with the same effectiveness everywhere, and some drones flying at low altitude can barely be detected by existing systems. The Defense Ministry itself acknowledges there have been incursions that were not identified in time. “On the one hand, we must develop our own capabilities or, through cooperation agreements, obtain the means necessary to shoot down these drones and protect ourselves; and, on the other, develop our defense industry so we can produce our own systems,” Burduja explains.

For Rosian Vasiloi, a security policy expert, some attacks have been “premeditated.” “With these actions, Russia seeks to test our reaction capability,” the former chief of Moldova’s Border Police tells EL PAÍS, advocating a bilateral agreement with Romania allowing Romanian fighters to fly over Moldovan airspace to destroy any unidentified aerial objects: “There must be a mechanism between the two countries that does not contradict Romania’s NATO commitments or Moldova’s neutrality and that guarantees the safety of Moldovans.” Vasiloi believes Moldova’s main weakness is not so much the absence of surveillance means as the lack of integration among existing systems. “The country needs to move from reacting on a case-by-case basis to building a national architecture that connects detection, identification, tracking, decision-making and neutralization, along with a network of sensors and better warning mechanisms for the population,” says the retired colonel, before revealing that authorities only have means dedicated to surveillance, electronic warfare, and neutralization.

In response to Russian violations of Moldovan airspace, Sandu has requested that the country be equipped with more radars, systems capable of neutralizing drones, and interceptors specifically designed to counter low-cost devices. To that end, the government sought support from Brussels, which in July granted €120 million through the European Peace Facility. This aid, intended to finance a medium-range defense system, has political as well as military value. “Moldova must have the capacity to defend itself, but it must also be helped; the state cannot be completely exposed,” Burduja says. He warns the incursions will continue: “Being weak does not mean Russia will stop sending drones.”

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