Moldova’s pro-EU party seems to have secured a strong win against its Russia-leaning rival in what has been described as the most consequential election since the country’s independence.

With more than 99% of votes counted, Moldova’s ruling party, the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), had a share of 49.99%, versus 24.28% for the Patriotic Bloc, which opposes closer ties with Brussels.

Holding a majority in the 101-seat chamber would allow PAS to keep pushing for its goal of joining the EU.

If it falls short, it will have to try to form a coalition with smaller parties.

The Patriotic Bloc aims to win power and steer the nation – a former Soviet republic – away from closer ties with Brussels and the EU.

Moldova’s pro-Western president Maia Sandu, who wants the country to join the EU by 2030, reiterated long-held claims that Russia has interfered with elections.

After casting her ballot, she said: “Russia poses a danger to our democracies. Our democracy is young and fragile, but that does not mean that states with longer democracies are not in danger.

“We want to live in a democracy.”

In the build up to the election, Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned that Russia was spending “hundreds of millions” of euros as part of an alleged hybrid war to try to seize power, which he described as “the final battle for our country’s future”.

PAS leaders, including the party’s leader Igor Grosu, have called vote the most consequential in Moldova since independence.

Moscow has always denied meddling and says the government is spreading anti-Russian hysteria to win votes.

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Election day itself was marked by a string of incidents, ranging from bomb threats at multiple polling stations abroad to cyber attacks on electoral and government infrastructure.

Police also detained three people suspected of plotting to cause unrest after the vote.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the apparent results of the elections as he said on X: “Despite attempts at interference and pressure, the choice of Moldovan citizens has been strongly affirmed.

“France stands alongside Moldova in its European project and its drive for freedom and sovereignty.”

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Moldova, you’ve done it again.”

Why would Russia want to interfere?

Moldova is landlocked between Ukraine and Romania.

The country of about 2.5 million people has spent recent years on a Westward path and gained candidate status to the EU in 2022, shortly after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

If Moldova becomes a permanent EU member, it would mean a distancing from Moscow, as the EU has offered support to Ukraine and has put various sanctions in place against Russia.

However, candidate status does not guarantee a country membership to the EU.

In order for a country to become a full member, candidates must adopt democratic norms and undertake reforms to meet EU rules, regulations and standards.

All EU governments then have to agree before that country can be admitted as an EU member.

The brutality of Russia’s drone assaults on Ukraine’s towns and cities shows no let up.

“Savage strikes, a deliberate targeted terror” is how the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the latest overnight bombardment.

Some 595 attack drones and 48 missiles were involved and even if only a small fraction made it through Ukrainian air defences, the destruction – in Sumy and Odessa, Zaporizhia and Kyiv – is significant.

Also overnight, Denmark reported yet more drone sightings.

It has not named Russia directly but after a week in which unidentified drones have resulted in the temporary shutdown of military and civilian airports, it is banning all civil drone flights and describing the threat as a hybrid attack.

Germany is also raising the alarm over unexplained drone activity along its border with Denmark.

Germany’s interior minister said on Saturday: “We are witnessing an arms race, an arms race between drone threats and drone defences. It is a race we cannot afford to lose.”

NATO is having to deploy extra assets to beef up its Baltic Sea defences and its Eastern flank.

European nations are working to establish a drone wall along their borders with Russia and Ukraine.

Germany is setting up a drone defence centre to make sure it has what it needs to protect itself.

The Kremlin is forcing NATO to divert assets to protect its airspace and sub-sea infrastructure at a time when Europe is trying to work out how best to support and finance Ukraine.

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With drones an inexpensive element of its hybrid warfare arsenal, Russia is sending a clear warning that it can relatively easily chip away at Europe’s defences and that Europe had better focus on protecting itself.

“If NATO begins to look too rattled, that actually is encouragement for Putin precisely to step up the pressure,” says Mark Galeotti, a specialist in Russian security. “So really we need to be holding our nerve.

“Yes, reserving the right to shoot things down that look like direct threats, but otherwise actually talking down, not talking up, the nature of the threat while of course we arm so that we are even more prepared.”

Last week, Estonia said its fighter jets had escorted three Russian MIG fighter jets out of their airspace after a 12-minute incursion, which Russia denies ever took place.

On Saturday, Estonia pledged €10m (£8.7m) to NATO’s “Prioritised Ukraine Requirement List” or PURL programme, which sees US-produced weapons, paid for by NATO’s European partners, fast-tracked to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy posted on Sunday after speaking with the NATO secretary general that PURL is moving forward well. And that is just what Russia is trying to prevent.

Hamas’s armed group has claimed it has lost contact with two hostages as a result of Israel’s operations in Gaza – after it called on air deployments to be stopped for 24 hours.

In a statement, Hamas’s armed al-Qassam Brigades said it had demanded that Israel halt air sorties for 24 hours, starting at 6pm, in part of Gaza City, to remove the hostages from danger.

It comes a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet US President Donald Trump and as the number of those killed in Gaza surpasses the 66,000 mark, according to the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

A total of 48 hostages are still being held captive by Hamas, the militant group which rules Gaza, with about 20 believed by Israel to still be alive. A total of 251 hostages were taken on 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel which killed 1,200 people.

Situation on the ground

In Gaza, a war-torn enclave where famine has been declared in some areas and where Israel has been accused of committing acts of genocide – which it has repeatedly denied – the almost two-year war raged on.

On Sunday, the number of those killed rose to at least 21 as five people were killed in an airstrike in the Al Naser area, local health authorities said, while medics reported 16 more deaths in strikes on houses in central Gaza.

The Civil Emergency Service in Gaza said late on Saturday that Israel had denied 73 requests, sent via international
organisations, to rescue injured Palestinians in Gaza City.

Israeli authorities had no immediate comment. The military earlier said forces were expanding operations in the city and
that five militants firing an anti-tank missile towards Israeli troops had been killed by the Israeli air force.

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‘We will get it done’

In Monday’s White House meeting, President Trump is expected to share a new 21-point proposal for an immediate ceasefire.

His proposal would include the release of all hostages within 48 hours and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave, according to three Arab officials briefed on the plan, the PA news agency reports.

A Hamas official said the group was briefed on the plan but has yet to receive an official offer from Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas has said it is ready to “study any proposals positively and responsibly”.

Mr Trump, who has been one of Israel’s greatest allies, said on Sunday there is “a real chance for greatness in the Middle East”.

It is unclear, however, what Mr Trump was specifically referring to.

He said in a Truth Social post: “We have a real chance for Greatness in the Middle East. All are on board for something special, first time ever. We will get it done.”

On Friday – the same day a video of diplomats walking out on Mr Netanyahu during his address to the United Nations went viral – Mr Trump said he believed the US had reached a deal on easing fighting in Gaza, saying it “will get the hostages back” and “end the war”.

“I think we maybe have a deal on Gaza, very close to a deal on Gaza,” the US president told reporters on the White House lawn as he was leaving to attend the Ryder Cup.

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed an agreement to end the war was imminent, only for nothing to materialise.

Weeks ago, he said: “I think we’re going to have a deal on Gaza very soon.”