| Date | 8 Jun 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Strike |
| Location |
Lopatna, Moldova
47.50, 29.05 (approximate) |
A drone bearing Ukrainian markings — which Ukraine said was a Russian decoy — crashed and exploded near the village of Lopatna, 55 km north-east of Chișinău and immediately beside the Dniester, which separates Moldovan-controlled territory from the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transnistria. The incident came hours after President Maia Sandu said Moldova should reinforce its counter-drone systems and attract military investment. The attribution remains contested and the incident is logged here without one.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 27 May 2026 | Incursion | Russian aircraft violates Finnish airspace off Porkkala |
| 28 May 2026 | Incursion | Drone without explosives found in Maramureș County |
| 29 May 2026 | Strike | Russian Geran-2 hits apartment building in Galați, injuring two |
| 8 Jun 2026 | Interception | French Rafale shoots down drone over eastern Latvia |
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.