| Date | 26 Feb 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Incursion |
| Location |
Chilia Veche, Tulcea County, Romania
45.42, 29.29 (approximate) |
During Russian airstrikes on Ukraine's Danube ports, the Romanian Air Force scrambled F-16s from Fetești Air Base when a Russian drone crossed briefly through Romanian airspace, triggering an air alert in Tulcea County before the drone returned to Ukraine. The following day a Russian drone heading towards Romania was shot down by a Ukrainian missile 100 metres from the village of Chilia Veche; F-16s again launched from Fetești while specialist teams stood by to search for fragments on Romanian soil.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Feb 2026 | Incursion | Russian drone crosses the Danube Delta and the Romanian exclusive economic zone |
| 26 Feb 2026 | Interception | Swedish patrol boat jams Russian drone over the Øresund |
| 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.