A chilling new revelation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has raised fresh questions about the danger facing him and other foreign officials traveling in and around Ukraine, after he said Russian drones targeted his presidential aircraft twice in recent weeks, including during trips through Moldovan airspace.

In an exclusive interview with CBS News on Tuesday, Sept. 15, Zelenskyy said the incidents were not simply random encounters with drones, but appeared connected to the presence of his aircraft and the international officials supporting Ukraine.

“In Moldova, my presidential jet was there, and that’s why they attacked,” Zelenskyy said, describing what he believes happened when drones entered Moldovan airspace while his aircraft was in Chișinău and again several days later as he returned through the Moldovan capital.

The revelation comes after Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said on Sept. 8 that Zelenskyy’s plane had nearly been hit by a drone while taking off from Moldova on its way to Oslo, calling the incident a “reality” facing the Ukrainian president during Russia’s war.

But Zelenskyy’s most disturbing comments concerned another incident involving a passenger train near Ukraine’s border with Poland. On Sept. 13, a jet-powered drone struck a train near Yahodyn in the Volyn region while it was carrying 206 passengers, including former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former CIA Director David Petraeus. No casualties were reported.

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Zelenskyy suggested that the presence of foreign officials may have been connected to the attack. But declined to provide verified evidence establishing that the train was deliberately targeted because of those passengers.

“Maybe they didn’t know that some Americans had been there or maybe… they knew, because I don’t trust them. I think that they knew,” Zelenskyy told CBS News.

He continued: “That’s why, Europeans, Americans, the big delegation had been in this train, and they attacked.”

The comments are particularly striking because they come against the backdrop of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s own recent statements about attacks against Ukrainian leaders. Following the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan on Sept. 2, Putin was asked whether Zelenskyy and other senior Ukrainian officials had immunity from Russian attacks. “As you can see, we do not carry out such strikes,” Putin said.

The contrast between that statement and Zelenskyy’s allegations is likely to fuel further scrutiny of Russia’s intentions, particularly as Ukrainian officials report that railway infrastructure has repeatedly been targeted. Kyiv Post reported that Russia had attacked Ukraine’s railway infrastructure at least 1,534 times since the beginning of 2026, while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said more than 500 locomotives had been damaged or destroyed by Russian strikes.

For Zelenskyy, however, the message is unmistakable: he believes the danger is reaching beyond Ukraine’s battlefield and increasingly follows the people traveling with or supporting Ukraine.

The reported incidents leave a troubling question hanging over every future diplomatic journey: who is being watched, and what happens when the next drone appears?