Russian Shahed UAV with Unexploded Warhead Found in Moldova

On the morning of January 22, a Russian Shahed strike UAV with an unexploded warhead was found in Moldova.

The discovery was reported by the Moldovan police.

According to their information, the black UAV, approximately 2.5 meters long, was found in the village of Crocmaz, Stefan Vodă district, in the garden of one of the houses.

Explosives experts are working at the scene, preparing to detonate the unexploded warhead in a controlled manner on site due to the danger of moving it.

Residents of nearby houses were evacuated for their safety.

Later, the country’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that it was a Russian drone.

“Another drone of Russian origin has been found in Moldova. Such incidents are unacceptable and violate our sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Ministry stated.

In the same statement, the Moldovan Foreign Ministry also condemned Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine.

It should be noted that Russian Shahed and other types of drones have repeatedly violated Moldova’s airspace.

Not just Shahed

At the end of November 2025, the Moldovan Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador and presented him with a Russian Gerbera drone that had flown into the country. It crashed into a house in the village of Nizhni Kugureshti in the north of the country.

Such unmanned aerial vehicles are used for kamikaze strikes or as decoys to overload air defense systems. Russian troops began actively using them against Ukraine in 2024.

In early December, a local resident accidentally found another Gerbera drone in a field between the villages of Pepen and Copaceni in the Sincereu district of Moldova.