| Date | 10 Mar 2022 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Incursion |
| Location |
Zagreb, Croatia
45.82, 15.98 (approximate) |
A Soviet-era Tupolev Tu-141 reconnaissance drone flew the length of three NATO members' airspace — Romanian, Hungarian and Croatian — before crashing in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, near a student residence. Both Ukraine and Russia denied owning it. Croatian defence minister Mario Banožić later said the governments along its flight path knew who had launched it but that the information had been classified. The drone crossed hundreds of kilometres of alliance airspace without being engaged, which became the substance of the political row that followed.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Feb 2022 | Interception | Ukrainian Su-27 escorted to Romanian air base after losing contact |
| 2 Mar 2022 | Incursion | Russian Su-24 and Su-27 fighters violate Swedish airspace east of Gotland |
| 14 Mar 2022 | Incursion | Russian Orlan-10 drone crashes in Bistrița-Năsăud County |
| 29 Apr 2022 | Incursion | Russian An-30 survey aircraft violates Swedish airspace off Blekinge |
GlobalMilitary.net's 2026 inventory snapshot shows nine NATO members — Iceland, Luxembourg, the three Baltic states, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia and Slovenia — hold no fixed-wing fighters, attack aircraft or bombers and depend on Allied air policing.
GlobalMilitary.net's incident log counts 45 established violations of European airspace between January 1 and August 16, 2026, against 31 for the whole of 2025 - and almost all of the growth sits in incidents that ended with a shootdown or an explosion on the ground.
An Italian Eurofighter on NATO Baltic Air Policing duty destroyed an unidentified drone over eastern Latvia before dawn on 14 August, the second time the alliance's quick-reaction force has shot one down over the country this year.