Claim
Russian drones entered Moldovan airspace twice while his presidential plane was in the country, with a source in his office describing a reported near-collision between a drone and the plane as 'an exaggeration,' though not denying the incident occurred
Attributed to Zelenskyy's office source on CBS News
Evidence
A CBS News report (Sept 2025/2026 interview) quotes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy directly stating that Russian drones targeted his plane and that one or two drones entered Moldovan airspace during his return trip, an incident he said was not previously reported. Independent outlet Meduza separately reported the same story, with a headline stating Zelensky said Russian drones entered Moldovan airspace twice while his plane was there, and that 'a source in his office called a reported near-collision "an exaggeration."' Both the CBS interview (the original source of the claim) and Meduza's independent republishing/summary corroborate the wording of the claim closely, including the detail about the office source calling the near-collision report an exaggeration without denying an incident occurred.
Assessment
The claim is directly sourced to an on-record CBS News interview with Zelenskyy and is corroborated by an independent report from Meduza using nearly identical language, but no independent fact-checking organization (Reuters Fact Check, AFP Fact Check, Bellingcat, EUvsDisinfo) has verified the underlying drone incident itself, so the claim rests on the credibility of the original statements rather than forensic verification.
Confidence
Some independent corroboration was found, but it isn't yet conclusive.
Timeline
Sep 16, 2026, 9:39 AM UTC
LikelyInitial assessment.
First observed Sep 16, 2026, 9:39 AM UTC · Last reviewed Sep 16, 2026, 9:39 AM UTC