| Date | 7 May 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Strike |
| Location |
Rēzekne, Latvia
56.51, 27.33 (approximate) |
An undetermined number of drones entered Latvian airspace from Russia, one striking an oil storage facility at Rēzekne, setting it on fire and damaging four empty tanks; at least one more crashed on Latvian soil. French military aircraft were launched in response. The Russian defence ministry then claimed Ukraine had used Latvian airspace to attack civilian targets in Saint Petersburg. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said the drones had been driven into Latvia by Russian jamming. Lithuanian analyst Vaidotas Malinionis argued Russia was exploiting the stray-drone problem to imply the Baltic states were permitting Ukrainian transit.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 3 May 2026 | Incursion | Unmarked drone falls 20 km inside Romania in Suceava County |
| 3 May 2026 | Incursion | Two drones enter Finnish airspace, airspace closed for three hours |
| 8 May 2026 | Incursion | Russian reconnaissance drone falls in Poland after crossing from Kaliningrad |
| 17 May 2026 | Incursion | Two drones that crashed in Lithuania identified as Ukrainian |
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.