| Date | 29 May 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Strike |
| Location |
Galați, Romania
45.44, 28.01 (approximate) |
Several drones were detected near the Romanian border during a Russian attack on Ukrainian ports, and two F-16s supported by an IAR 330 SOCAT helicopter were launched. One Shahed-type drone entered Romanian airspace and struck an apartment building in Galați, wounding two people; around 70 residents were evacuated, five cars were damaged and a fire was quickly put out. Foreign minister Oana Țoiu summoned the Russian ambassador, calling it "a grave and reckless escalation". President Nicușor Dan then declared the Russian consul-general in Constanța persona non grata and ordered the consulate closed. Vladimir Putin suggested the drone might have been Ukrainian; a Romanian technical investigation, SHAPE and the defence ministry all identified it as a Russian Geran-2.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 23 May 2026 | Strike | Drone explodes on impact in Latvian lake |
| 23 May 2026 | Interception | Lithuanian border guards bring down homemade drone from Belarus |
| 27 May 2026 | Incursion | Russian aircraft violates Finnish airspace off Porkkala |
| 28 May 2026 | Incursion | Drone without explosives found in Maramureș County |
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.