| Date | 21 Mar 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Incursion |
| Location |
Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland
53.07, 22.97 (approximate) |
Polish authorities reported finding five balloons across Podlaskie Voivodeship along the eastern border with Belarus. Recovery of balloons on the ground, days after any crossing, is the usual form these incidents take on the Polish border, where the forested frontier makes interception impractical.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Mar 2026 | Incursion | Russian Geran-2 falls near Tudora, Moldova |
| 18 Mar 2026 | Incursion | Russian Su-30 violates Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland |
| 23 Mar 2026 | Incursion | Ukrainian drone crashes into frozen lake in Lithuania |
| 25 Mar 2026 | Strike | Ukrainian drone hits Auvere power plant chimney in Estonia |
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.