| Date | 26 Feb 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Interception |
| Location |
Øresund Strait
55.77, 12.73 (approximate) |
The Swedish Navy patrol boat HSwMS Rapp neutralised a Russian drone by jamming it over the Øresund strait. The machine had been launched from the Russian intelligence-gathering ship Zhigulevsk, which the Swedish vessel had been tracking. Authorities classified the episode as a serious security alert. The interception took place near the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, then on a port call at Malmö and the apparent target of the reconnaissance flight — which is why France is recorded alongside Sweden here.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Feb 2026 | Incursion | Russian drone crosses the Danube Delta and the Romanian exclusive economic zone |
| 26 Feb 2026 | Incursion | Russian drone crosses Romanian airspace during Danube port strikes |
| 13 Mar 2026 | Incursion | Russian drone filmed flying low over Romanian village |
| 17 Mar 2026 | Incursion | Russian Geran-2 falls near Tudora, Moldova |
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.