Ukraine War Newsblog | Ukraine: Russian missiles flew over Moldova and Romania

Day 352 since the beginning of the war: A Ukrainian governor reports a Russian offensive in the east. France leaves fighter jet delivery open. All information in the news blog.

1:15 p.m.: Romania contradicts Ukrainian statements about the trajectory of a Russian missile with specific information. “The target trajectory, which came closest to Romanian airspace, was detected by radar about 35 kilometers northeast of the border,” the Defense Ministry in Bucharest said.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valeriy Zalushny, said that during the new wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine, two missiles first entered Moldova’s airspace and then flew through Romanian airspace. The NATO country Romania immediately announced that no missiles had entered Romanian airspace. The Romanian Defense Ministry said the missile was likely a cruise missile fired from a Russian ship in the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula. Russia initially did not comment on this.

11:41 a.m: The 18 Leopard 2 tanks that the Netherlands leases from Germany will not be made available to Ukraine. The German government decided that, Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren told the ANP news agency on Thursday in parliament in The Hague. “It was a military decision.” The Netherlands had previously considered buying the tanks from Germany and gifting them to Ukraine.

11:27 am: According to Ukrainian sources, two rockets crossed Romanian and Moldovan airspace in the new wave of Russian attacks. Two Caliber missiles fired from the Black Sea first entered Moldova’s airspace and then flew through Romanian airspace before reaching Ukraine, says Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zalushny. Romania is a member of NATO and denied the report a short time later (see entry from 1:15 p.m.).

The newspaper “Ukrainska Pravda” quoted the spokesman for the air force as saying that Ukraine had the opportunity to shoot down the missiles but did not do so because they did not want to endanger civilians abroad. The leadership in Moldova spoke of a rocket and summoned the Russian ambassador to protest. Romania says the missile entered Moldova’s airspace, but not Romania’s. Russia initially did not comment on this.

11:16 am: On the way back from the EU summit in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj met his counterpart Andrzej Duda in Poland. The meeting in the southern Polish city of Rzeszow took place late Thursday evening, Dudas foreign policy adviser Marcin Przydacz told the PAP news agency on Friday.

Selenskyj reported to Duda on the results of his meetings in Brussels, Paris and London. Other topics were the current situation at the front, security in the region and the joint Western efforts to provide military support to Ukraine.

On Thursday in Brussels, the Ukrainian President pledged the heads of state and government of the EU countries to a joint fight against Russia and at the same time called for further arms deliveries from the member states. On Wednesday he had visited London and Paris.

9.42 a.m.: Russia launched massive attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine again on Friday night. Here you can read more about it.

9.41 a.m.: Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa has promised Ukraine three modern Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks. The socialist politician said this at the EU summit on Thursday in Brussels, as reported by the Portuguese state news agency Lusa. As a possible date for the posting, Costa had previously mentioned a period of time “until the end of March” at the European level on the state TV broadcaster RTP.

Costa stressed in Brussels shortly before a meeting with his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelenskyj that his country would provide Ukraine with “all the support for the struggle” that Portugal is capable of. “It would be a tragedy for the world if the war ended with a victory” by Russia, a country which, as an aggressor, violates “international law” and “the right to the integrity of borders, the right to sovereignty of peoples and the right disregards the self-determination of every nation”, Lusa continued to quote the Portuguese head of government. Portugal has a total of 37 Leopard 2A6s that were bought used from the Netherlands years ago.