Russian Banderol missile enters Moldovan airspace, Ukraine claims, explosion reported near village

A Russian S8000 Banderol cruise missile entered Moldovan airspace during a Russian attack on Odesa on Aug. 17, Ukraine's Air Force said in a statement.

Moldovan authorities confirmed an unidentified object entered Moldovan airspace at the same time without ascribing responsibility to Russia for the incursion.

According to a statement by the Moldovan Defense Ministry, Moldovan radars detected the "entry of an aerial object into the airspace of the Republic of Moldova" at 17:37 local time.

Moldovan authorities closed airspace in the Centru region of the country for a period of 15 minutes, before the object disappeared from radar in the region of Talmaza, Stefan Voda district. An "explosion was recorded" in the area in which the unknown object crashed, according to the Moldovan Defense Ministry.

Moldovan police later released footage showing fire and wreckage in a corn field approximately 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) outside of the village of Talmaza where the "aerial object" was suspected to have crashed.

Talmaza sits approximately 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the border with Ukraine. Moldovan first responders extinguished the fire and authorities are investigating the wreckage.

Manufactured by Russia's Kronshtadt Group, the Banderol is a small, low-cost cruise missile which is launched from a Kronshtadt Orion strike and reconnaissance drone. Russia has been increasingly using the munition to strike targets in and around Odesa.  

Moldovan President Maia Sandu previously told Teleradio Moldova that she believed some Russian munitions had violated Moldovan airspace deliberately, and that Russia was testing the reactions of Moldova and other states that support Ukraine.

"I believe that some (munitions) arrive by chance and others arrive because they are sent, and not only in our airspace, but also in the airspace of other states in the region," Sandu said.

Incursions by Russian munitions into the airspace of countries neighbouring Ukraine have become increasingly frequent

On August 16, two Spanish F-18s deployed in Romania as part of a NATO air-policing mission shot down a suspected Russian drone that violated Romanian airspace near the Moldovan border, Romanian Defense Minister Radu Miruta confirmed, the fourth such instance of a suspected Russian drone incursion this year.

On July 30, a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile violated Polish airspace before crashing into a field near Tarnawa-Kolonia in eastern Poland.

September 2025, saw the most serious incursion to date, with up to 23 Russian drones violating Polish airspace during a large-scale Russian attack on western Ukraine.

Up to four of the intruding drones were shot down in the incident, which Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski described as an "unprecedented case of an attack not only on the territory of Poland but also on the territory of NATO and the EU."