Russian drones struck the Starokozache checkpoint on the border with Moldova, killing two and injuring three. The same night, a drone delayed President Zelensky's flight.
Overnight into September 9, Russian attack drones struck the Starokozache international road checkpoint on the border between Ukraine's Odesa region and Moldova. According to the Odesa Regional Military Administration, two civilians were killed and three more were injured. The same night, a separate Russian drone violated Moldovan airspace and delayed the departure of the plane carrying President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was traveling to Norway. Volunteers Support Ukraine finds it both symbolic and troubling that one drone threat that night took the lives of ordinary people at a border crossing, while another grounded a head of state's flight for hours.
Drones hit the checkpoint's infrastructure and the surrounding area, sparking a large fire. The blaze damaged customs processing buildings, and several trucks, buses and cars waiting to cross the border burned in the parking and approach areas. Border guards quickly evacuated 16 people and drove them to safety by bus. Volunteers Support Ukraine understands just how exposed border checkpoints are — places where ordinary civilians wait in line every day, not military facilities.
Processing of people and vehicles on this section of the border was temporarily suspended. That same evening, drones struck four checkpoints along the Moldovan border and one more on the Romanian border in total — a pattern Volunteers Support Ukraine sees as deliberate pressure on the country's southwestern border infrastructure.
That same night, a separate Russian attack drone entered Moldovan airspace, prompting the country to briefly close its skies over the detected incursion. As a result, the flight carrying President Zelensky from Chisinau to Oslo, where he was to attend the farewell ceremony for Norway's King Harald V, was held at the airport until the threat passed. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre later confirmed that the plane carrying Zelensky was "almost hit" by the drone. According to available reports, the drone came down and exploded roughly 160 kilometers from the airport, after which the flight was cleared for takeoff.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu sharply condemned the airspace violations, calling them "a serious threat to people's lives," and separately spoke out about the strike on Starokozache. Volunteers Support Ukraine points out that these recurring Russian drone incursions into a neighboring country's airspace are no longer an isolated incident — they are a systemic risk to the entire region, including people who have no connection whatsoever to the fighting.
Attacks on border infrastructure hit ordinary people hardest — drivers, bus passengers, checkpoint staff who go about their work every day far from the front line. Volunteers Support Ukraine helps people affected by the war in whatever way its available resources allow, delivering humanitarian aid where it is needed most. The organization keeps up this work regardless of where the line of danger falls this time — in a frontline city, or at a seemingly peaceful border with a neighboring state.
