Poland Scrambles Fighter Jets as Russian Missile Crosses Moldovan and Romanian Airspace

One cruise missile allegedly passed through Moldova and Romania before entering Ukraine's Chernivtsi region in the west of Ukraine during Russia's massive attack on Ukraine on the morning of December 25.

This was reported at 7:28 am by the Ukrainian monitoring group ‘Monitor’ on their account on X.

Additionally, at 7:24 am, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that a cruise missile was heading toward Chernivtsi from the territory of Moldova.

The spokesman of the Ministry of Defense of Romania Constantin Spînu stated in a commentary to Digi24 that the Romanian air defense did not detect any Russian missile entering its airspace during the massive strike on Ukraine.

“According to the monitoring data from Romania's air surveillance systems and those provided by NATO countries' assets, which supplement the monitoring, no confirmation was made of a Russian missile crossing Romanian airspace in Romania's area of responsibility,“ Spînu said.

On the same morning, Poland scrambled fighter jets after Russia launched missiles into Ukraine's airspace.

The Armed Forces Operational Command of Poland noted that it had placed combat aircraft, ground-based air defense systems, and radar reconnaissance in a state of readiness.

On Christmas morning, December 25, Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine, deploying drones and missiles, primarily targeting the country's energy infrastructure. Currently, several regions are experiencing power outages.

Authorities in Romania and Moldova have previously reported several instances of finding wreckage from Russian drones. Romania has urged NATO to take a "robust and coordinated" approach in response to the repeated violations of its airspace by Russian drones and missiles.