An unknown drone nearly struck President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's plane as it took off from Moldova on his way to King Harald's funeral in Oslo. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who received him the next morning, told the broadcaster NRK that his plane "was nearly hit by a drone during takeoff."

The account, so far only Norway's, points to how far Russia's air war now reaches. If confirmed, it means a Russian drone came close to a head of state as he left the region, somehow reaching Moldova, Ukraine's neighboring state.

"That is the reality he faces," Støre added.

A drone shadows the president's flight

Details of the near-miss remain thin. Støre did not say how close the drone came or what happened to it, and Ukraine has not commented publicly.

While the drone could come from the territory of Ukraine, it may also echo an episode from five weeks earlier in Leipzig that Germany has since formally pinned on Moscow.

On the night of 4 August, an airport worker at Leipzig/Halle found a drone carrying roughly 800 grams of explosive parked near a Ukrainian An-124 cargo plane.

Zelenskyy arrives after a hard night

Støre said he asked Zelenskyy how the night had been.

"He said it hadn't been a good night, because he had been on the phone receiving information about where the missiles had hit," Støre said, calling the situation in Ukraine "very dramatic."

Zelenskyy met Støre, Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg, the former NATO secretary general, and Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide soon after landing.

The drone war reaches into Moldova

The reported near-miss fits a widening pattern on Ukraine's southwestern edge. Russian drones have struck the border crossings that tie Odesa Oblast to Moldova and Romania and have strayed into Moldovan and Romanian airspace during strikes on Ukraine, forcing both countries to close their skies and scramble jets.

Moldova, which lacks the air defenses to stop such incursions, has been investing in building them. On 27 August, the Institute for the Study of War said the crossings show Russia working to normalize the threat its strikes pose to European states.