Occurrences of Russian Missile Fragments Landing in Moldova
By: Will Zadeskey
February 1, 2023
Updated February 10 2023
There have been several incidences of debris from Russia missiles landing in Moldova since the War in Ukraine began. Additionally, Russian missiles have violated Moldovan airspace in route to attacking Ukraine. Although these are not intentional strikes on Moldova by Russia, these dangerous incidents greatly increase the likelihood that the conflict in Ukraine could spill-over into Moldova.
Missile Debris in Moldova
- February 10, 2023
On Friday morning, Commander and Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, revealed in a statement that two Russian missiles entered Moldova airspace.
“At 10:18 a.m., February 10, 2023, two Russian Kalibr-type cruise missiles
crossed the state border between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. Around
10:33 a.m., these missiles crossed Romania’s airspace. After that, they re-entered
the air space of Ukraine at the crossing point of the borders of the three states."
The Romanian Ministry of Defense stated that the Russian cruise missile did not enter Romanian airspace.
The missile was tracked to be about 35 km away from the Romanian border.
At 10:38, Two Romanian Mig-21 LanceR aircrafts were directed to the area.
The Ministry reported that the missile was likely launched from a Russian ship in the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula.
The Moldovan Ministry of Defense confirmed that a rocket had entered their airspace. MoD continues to monitor the situation.
The missile traversed Moldovan airspace above the village of Mocra in the Transnistrian region, above Cosauți in the Soroca district, and then towards Ukraine.
12:42: FM Popescu summoned the Russian ambassador to discuss the "unacceptable violation" of Moldovan airspace.
Big Picture
In a video address, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenski said that the missiles that flew over Moldova were part of a 70-missile attack against Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian Air, the attack included Shaded drones, 6 Kalibr cruise missiles, and other missiles. Three warships and 8 Tu-29 strategic bombers carried out the barrage.
Zelenski also repeated Zaluzhnyi's claim that a Russian projectile violated NATO airspace.
- January 14, 2023
Moldovan Border Police discovered fragments of a Russian missile near the village of Larga in the northern Briceni region.
The missile's warhead was found among the wreckage.
Engineers from the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Defense conducted a controlled explosion of the missile debris on January 15.
- December 5, 2022
At 5:15 PM, a border police patrol discovered a parts of a downed rocket in an orchard near the northern city of Briceni.
Russian sources claimed that the rocket was a Ukrainian S-300 air defense missile.
Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said that that missile was Russian.
- October 31, 2022
On the morning of October 30, a parts of a downed Russian missile crashed near the Moldovan village of Naslavcea.
The Moldovan government reported on Telegram that the missile was shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that there were no injuries, but windows in the village were broken by the blast.
As a result, Chisinau expelled a Russian diplomat.
Quoting Ukrainian sources, the Moldovan government claimed that the missiles targeted the Dnister Hydroelectric Power Plant, 10km away from Naslavcea.
One missile hit the plant, while at least one was shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, according to a Ukrainian border guard.
- October 10, 2022
The Moldovan government reported that 3 Russian cruise missiles, launched from ships in the Black Sea, had violated Moldovan airspace between 8:33-9:02 AM.
The Moldovan Ministry of defense confirmed this and reported the missile trajectories.
Estimation of the three missile trajectories based on data from the Moldovan Ministry of Internal Affairs