Two Russian missiles flew through the airspace of Romania and Moldova before entering the skies over Ukraine today. Valery Zaluzhny, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, claims this, Reuters reports.
In his words two Kalibr missiles launched from the Black Seaentered the airspace of Moldova, then flew through the skies over NATO member Romania and entered Ukraine.
“Ukrainian Pravda” quotes a separate statement from the spokesperson of the Ukrainian Air Force, who stated that Ukraine had the opportunity to shoot down the missiles, but did not do so because it did not want to endanger civilians in foreign countries.
So far, Russia has not commented on the matter.
Moldova’s defense ministry initially said it was verifying the information. Subsequently, the department announced that have summoned the Russian ambassador to the country Oleg Vasnetsov because of Ukraine’s claims.
“The head of Moldovan diplomacy, Niku Popescu, ordered the Russian ambassador in Chisinau, Oleg Vasnetsov, to be urgently summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to indicate to the Russian side an unacceptable violation of our airspace in the form of a Russian missile flying over the sovereign territory of Moldova“, said the spokesperson of the ministry, Daniel Voda.
The event is relevant against the background of the latest escalation of the war in Ukraine, as may be used to refer to Article 5 of NATO, according to which an attack against a member of the Alliance is considered aggression against all members. So far, this article has only been used since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Another rocket fell in Moldova
After the new series of Russian airstrikes against Ukraine
Since the beginning of the war, there have been several incidents of falling missiles in countries neighboring Ukraine.
The last such case is from January 14 of this year, when a Moldovan border patrol found fragments of a rocket that fell in the area of the Larga (Brichani) border sector after another massive shelling of Ukraine by Russia. This was the third time that fragments of rockets from the bombing of Ukraine fell on the territory of the country.
On December 5 last year debris from a rocket fell in the same area.
A similar incident happened at the end of October. Then a Russian rocket fell in the Moldovan village Naslavcha, after it was shot down by air defenses in neighboring Ukraine during another a series of Russian missile strikes against Ukrainian cities.
On November 15 a rocket also landed in the village of Pshevodov in eastern Poland, near the border with Ukraine, killing two people.
Russian missiles also hit Poland
At least two people were killed
