Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs, ordered to urgently summon Russia’s Ambassador in Chisinau Oleg Vasnetsov to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration to present the Russian side’s explanations over the launch of three cruise missiles from Russian ships in the Black Sea, which transited the Republic of Moldova’s territory near Cobasna village and the municipality of Soroca. 

“The Republic of Moldova considers this incident is extremely serious and regrettable and it undoubtedly generates additional tensions. The violation of our national airspace is fully unacceptable. The bombarding of the neighboring country should be immediately stopped,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration noted in a statement.

The Ministry said the personnel of Moldova’s Embassy in Kyiv following this morning’s missile attacks are safe. The Embassy remains in touch with the Ukrainian authorities. The victims do not include citizens of the Republic of Moldova.

The Ministry of Defense informed that its specialized bodies identified three missiles that crossed the Moldovan airspace towards Ukraine between 8:33am-9:02am. The missiles were also confirmed by the responsible bodies of the Ministry of National Defense of Romania and of Ukraine. They were also detected by the monitoring systems of the state-run airspace utilization and air traffic service company MOLDATSA.

“The missiles posed a threat to the infrastructure of the Republic of Moldova, especially to the civilian planes within the country’s airspace,” said the Ministry of Defense.

After Sunday’s strike against the Kerch bridge in Crimea, the Russian armed forces launched missile attacks on a number of cities across Ukraine, including its capital Kyiv. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks claimed a number of lives and left injured.