KYIV (Reuters) – Missile debris was discovered in Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region on Monday after overnight Russian missile strikes on the neighbouring Odesa region in Ukraine, an official said.
Oleg Beliakov, co-head of a special commission overseeing security arrangements in the breakaway region, said police, sappers and military observers were on the site in the village of Chitcani, about 35 km (21 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Beliakov said an explosion had been heard and part of an S-300 missile came down in a garden near a private house but did not explode and caused no damage.
“The warhead of the S-300 missile is lying in the garden. There are some elements with markings still on it, from which it was possible to establish that this was an S-300 missile of the 1968 model,” Belyakov told reporters.
It was not immediately clear who had fired the missile.
The S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile system was developed by the Soviet Union and such missiles are used both by Russia and Ukraine.
Authorities in Moldova have at least four times reported finding missile debris in northern parts of the country since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and intensified missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region.
(Reporting by Alexander Tanas, Writing by Olena Harmash, Editing by Alex Richardson)
