According to reports from both Ukraine and Moldova, Russian missiles entered their countries’ territory during Russia’s current aerial war on Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, echoed the claims made by Kyiv’s top military that missiles had flown above Romania, despite denials from that country.
Since Romania is a member of Nato, Mr. Zelensky characterized the missiles as a “threat” to the alliance.
A representative of the Russian government avoided answering questions about what happened.
Dmitry Peskov, in his weekly teleconference with the media, informed the BBC that the defense ministry has yet to comment on the topic.
The Moldovan defense ministry called the missile flyover a “violation,” and it has now called in the Russian ambassador for an explanation, as it had done after a previous incident in October.
The incident took place on a day of high political tension in Chisinau, prompting the resignation of the entire administration.
As for the Romanian side, they claimed no Russian missiles had ever entered their territory.
Mr. Zelensky, though, reaffirmed the Ukrainian military’s accusation that Romania had been supplying them with missiles from Russia, noting that this raised concerns about “collective security.”
He later wrote on the Telegram chat service that the attack had “victims,” though he did not say how many.
Ukraine’s air force claimed to have intercepted 61 of the 71 missiles launched during Friday’s “massive” attack.
An advisor to Mr. Zelensky criticized “political hesitance” in the West on the donation of fighter jets and made a similar request after the fact.
After making a similar trip to the UK, Mr. Zelensky spent the previous day addressing EU leaders and pleading for planes to be sent.
After attacks on energy facilities in six Ukrainian districts, the country is in the dark.
At least seven people were hurt, and officials estimated that as many as 150,000 houses in the eastern part of the Kharkiv region were without power.
Kyiv also experienced explosions, but the city’s mayor assured the public that no one was wounded. Residents took refuge in the capital city’s subway system, with some reports even claiming that classes were held in a station.
The governor of the Mykolaiv area reported a minimum of three “waves” of missiles, and more territories came under assault as well, including Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.
Moscow has frequently attacked Ukrainian energy infrastructure this winter, and Friday’s attack was the fourteenth, according to Ukraine’s official energy firm.
Some commentators have even called these attacks war crimes, though Russia insists they were not meant to hurt civilians.
A government representative recently told Latvian media that 98 energy employees in the country were killed in the line of duty in 2017.
On Friday, when the aerial bombardment began, the head of Ukraine’s state-owned train network tweeted a defiant statement.
It was penned by Olexander Kamyshin: “It has been decided to begin delaying trains, but not cancel any of them. Promise. It is not going to stop us.”