This is a flagrant violation of the Republic of Moldova’s sovereignty, said Minister of Defense Anatolie Nosatyi, referring to the crossing of the national airspace by three Russian missiles. He noted that the missiles posed a serious threat to civil aircraft. Also, such a flagrant violation poses major risks to the population and the infrastructure of the country as the projectiles can have technical faults, IPN reports.

On Monday, the Ministry of Defense of Moldova announced that its specialized bodies identified three missiles that crossed the airspace of the Republic of Moldova towards Ukraine. The Russian missiles were launched from the Black Sea and crossed the country’s eastern part.

“The army is outfitted with radiolocation systems that enable us to detect and identify missiles at different heights and distances. Any violation of the airspace is a danger to any flying target given the absence of coordination. This is a flagrant violation of national sovereignty. Such an action was firmly condemned by the senior administration. We analyzed the movement direction of the rockets and their altitude and it was clear that they didn’t target us,” Anatolie Nosatyi stated in a program on the public TV channel.

The minister noted that the risks to Moldova’s military security are reduced as long as Ukraine heroically puts up resistance to the Russian army. He also said that the military vehicles traveling along particular routes go to and from training exercises.

“At the moment, analyzing the situation in Ukraine, we see that the Russian forces are stopped far from the national territory. Owing to the courage and dedication of the people of Ukraine, we are not directly targeted and an imminent danger to the national military security is not accentuated but there are risks and we should neutralize them. The National Army is preparing to fulfill its main duty – to defend the national integrity and sovereignty. I want to warn the population that the images of military vehicles traveling to shooting grounds are not a reason for panic and confidence in the army should be greater,” said Anatolie Nosatyi.

After three Russian rockets crossed Moldova’s airspace on Monday, representatives of the Civil Aviation Authority came together for an emergency meeting and decided that Moldova’s airspace will remain open “within the current boundaries”. The Authority adopted a series of decisions aimed at decreasing the risks to civilian aircraft flying to and from the Chisinau International Airport.