Kyiv — Russia targeted the plane carrying Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy twice in recent weeks, Zelenskyy told CBS News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
“In Moldova, my presidential jet was there, and that’s why they attacked Moldova,” Zelenskyy said. “When we went back home, again through Chisinau, they did the same.”
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store previously said Zelenskyy’s plane was “almost hit” by a drone in Moldovan airspace as the Ukrainian leader took off on his way to Oslo for a visit on Sept. 9, adding: “That is the reality he lives in.”
The Ukrainian leader told CBS News on Tuesday that one or two drones also entered Moldovan airspace during his return trip to Ukraine a couple days later — an incident not previously reported.
Ukrainian officials said later that all members of the presidential delegation were safe, and it was not clear at the time whether the incident was intentional. Zelenskyy said Tuesday that it was part of a Russian strategy to intimidate him and other foreign leaders.
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On Sunday, a Russian drone struck a passenger train carrying foreign dignitaries on a visit to Ukraine, including senior European officials and former CIA Director David Petraeus, forcing them to evacuate near the Polish border.
“Maybe they didn’t know that some Americans had been there or maybe, oppositely, they knew, because I don’t trust them. I think that they knew,” Zelenskyy told CBS News. “That’s why, Europeans, Americans, the big delegation had been in this train, and they attacked.”
In recent months, unidentified drones — some traced back to Russia — have increasingly entered European airspace. On Tuesday, NATO fighter jets shot down a drone in Lithuanian airspace for the first time, according to The Associated Press, citing Lithuanian military officials.