Fresh details have emerged regarding the disruption caused by Russian drones around the time of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's departure from Moldova, with reports confirming that two unmanned craft breached the country's airspace and forced the suspension of operations at Chisinau airport.

While we previously reported that a single Shahed-type drone had crossed Moldovan airspace before entering Romania, it is now known that two Russian drones breached the country's sovereign territory. One came down in an open field, sparking a fire, whilst the second continued its flight path into Romanian airspace.

Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 showed that operations at Chisinau airport were temporarily halted during the incident, forcing several inbound civilian flights to divert to alternative airports outside Moldova or enter holding patterns.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu condemned the drone intrusions as a "serious threat to people's lives", while also denouncing a separate attack on a border crossing with Ukraine in which two people were killed. Moldovan officials have not commented directly on claims regarding the proximity of the drones to the Ukrainian president's flight.

The incident was first highlighted by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who told broadcaster NRK that Mr Zelenskyy's plane was "almost hit by a drone as it was about to take off from Moldova". Mr Støre did not disclose his source or state precisely how close the drone came to the aircraft.

A source had told the Kyiv Independent that the timing of the incursion directly coincided with Mr Zelenskyy's departure flight. Mr Støre recounted asking the Ukrainian leader about his journey upon arrival in Oslo, to which Mr Zelenskyy replied that "it wasn't a good night, because he had been on the phone receiving news about where the missiles had hit".

Despite the disruption, Mr Zelenskyy arrived safely in Oslo to attend the state funeral of King Harald V, who passed away last month aged 89 following a 35-year reign.

Thousands of mourners lined the streets of Oslo for the procession from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral, which commenced with a 21-gun salute. King Harald's coffin, draped in the national royal standard, was followed on foot by his son and successor, King Haakon VIII, and other senior royals, before the late monarch was interred in the royal crypt at Akershus Fortress.

Mr Zelenskyy joined world leaders and dignitaries from more than 20 nations at the cathedral, including Britain's Prince William, Japan's Crown Prince Akishino, and monarchs from across Europe and the Middle East, before departing Norway shortly after the service concluded.

During his visit, Mr Zelenskyy held defence talks with Mr Støre and industry representatives to discuss the FREYJA initiative, a European programme working to develop alternatives to US-made Patriot anti-ballistic missile systems.

The discussions took place against the backdrop of repeated appeals from Kyiv for stronger international intervention. "Unfortunately, there has been too little response from the international community to these strikes, which are taking people's lives practically every day," Mr Zelenskyy said on social media. "Moscow must not go into the winter believing that it can get away with missile and drone terror without consequences."

The scale of the threat from the air was underscored last month by the United Nations, which reported that Russian aerial bombardments caused more civilian casualties in July than in any month since March 2022, leaving 437 people dead and over 2,600 injured. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reports that more than 16,800 civilians have been killed and over 51,000 injured since the invasion began. Moscow maintains that it does not target civilians and only strikes military-related infrastructure.

I'll be keeping a close watch on the investigation into this airspace breach and its wider security fallout — check back for updates.