Air alert in the Republic of Moldova: an object, mistaken for a drone, turned out to be a hot air balloon
The Border Police from Chisinau was alerted at around 15:00 by the authorities from Kiev that a flying object would have flown over the airspace in the northern area, but later the officials of the Moldavian Ministry of Defense determined that it was a hot air balloon.
The air alert was registered around 3:00 p.m. PHOTO Symbol
The information according to which a Russian drone would have flown over the airspace of the Republic of Moldova was made public by the Kiev press.
“The monitoring channels say that a drone Russian has penetrated the airspace of the Republic of Moldova and is heading towards Romania. Previously, both in the Republic of Moldova and in Romania, drones have penetrated during the Russian attacks on Ukraine”, the “Unian” journalists noted.
Later, the Border Police of the Republic of Moldova informed that no drone was identified during the day of Friday, December 26, emphasizing that Moldovan citizens “I'm out of danger.”
“The Border Police was informed by the Ukrainian authorities that their radars detected a flying object that flew over the airspace in the northern area of the Republic of Moldova, in the direction of the towns of Bârnova – Dondușeni – Grinăuți – Brătușeni. At 16:10, the State Border Service of Ukraine communicated that the flying object disappeared from the radars in the region of the town of Brătușeni. Later, The Border Police was informed by the Air Operations Service of the Ministry of Defense that the flying object turned out to be a hot air balloon. We note that, on the territory of the Republic of Moldova, there were no risks or dangers for citizens in the border area.” added the managers of the structure.
Recently, the airspace of the Republic of Moldova has been illegally flown by several drones.
For example, on the night of November 28 to 29, 2025, the airspace of the Republic of Moldova was closed for over an hour due to two drones. The incident took place days after six drones illegally flew over the country, and one of them fell into an orchard in the north marked “Z”.
Another Shahed type drone also passed over the territory of Romania, the authorities being informed immediately. On November 26, Russia's ambassador-at-large in Chisinau, Oleg Ozerov, was summoned to the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), where he was presented with the drone, which he denied belonged to Moscow.
The MAE sent a note of protest, stressing that these illegal overflights represent a violation of sovereignty and a threat to national security.
