For years, Russia's air war has been a bitter reality for Ukrainians, with missiles, bombs, and drones killing people every day. Now, that war is coming dangerously close to two of Ukraine's neighbors: Romania and the Republic of Moldova.
Drone incidents in both countries have become an almost daily occurrence. The drones often explode, leaving people injured. There have also been recent attacks on Ukrainian checkpoints at the Moldovan and Romanian borders.
The attacks have escalated to such a degree that many observers believe they can no longer be considered unintentional. They suspect the Kremlin is deliberately trying to bring the war to Ukraine's neighbors.
The latest incident occurred on Tuesday, when a Russian Geran drone crashed in a sunflower field near the Moldovan city of Riscani. The drone, capable of flying at speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour (311 mph), took off in Crimea, flew through Ukrainian airspace, and eventually came down on Moldovan territory.
The incident caused a significant disruption, preventing a plane carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from taking off in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau.
The drone also flew over Romania, where two fighter jets were scrambled from NATO's Kogalniceanu airbase near the Black Sea port of Constanta. It remains unclear why they did not shoot it down, as they had done on other occasions.
The incident exposed the limits of Moldova's air defense capabilities. The drones were detected and tracked by air traffic control, but shooting them down was not possible. According to publicly available information, the country possesses only a small number of Polish Piorun anti-aircraft missiles, which are capable of protecting only specific targets.
There have been around three dozen drone incidents in Romania and Moldova since the beginning of August. The majority were airspace violations, but there have also been crashes, explosions, and debris finds. In Romania, several drones have been shot down. According to official data, 17 drones crashed in Moldova alone during August — as many as in all of 2025.
A drone strike on the Starokozache border crossing between Ukraine and southeastern Moldova on the night of September 8 marked a further escalation. The crossing, situated around one kilometer from Moldovan territory, was damaged in the attack. Two people were killed and two others wounded, one of them a Moldovan citizen.
Moldova's leadership strongly condemned the attack. President Maia Sandu said on Wednesday that Russia's war had arrived at the Moldovan border.
"It is hard to understand, given this reality, that there are still voices who try to convince Moldovans that Russia is not the aggressor, or that the war in our part of the world has nothing to do with us," Sandu said.
The president of the Moldovan parliament, Igor Grosu, wrote on social media that these were incidents "we can no longer view as something remote." The threat from Russia, Grosu said, was not a "specter," and not propaganda: "It is a daily reality."
Moldova's Defense Minister Anatolie Nosatii said that deaths of Moldovan citizens could no longer be ruled out in future incidents.
Infrastructure Minister Vladimir Bolea warned that Giurgiulesti, Moldova's port on the Danube, could become a target. His warning followed a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry accusing Romania and Moldova of using the port as a "transit hub" for arms shipments.
Moldovan military and security expert Rosian Vasiloi, a former head of the Moldovan border police, described Tuesday's drone crash as a deliberate act. "This is a planned operation by the aggressor state," he wrote on social media, also pointing to the drone's unusual flight path as evidence of intent.
