| Date | 12 Jul 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Strike |
| Location |
Copanca, Moldova
46.72, 29.62 (approximate) |
The Moldovan defence ministry reported that a Russian Geran-2 crashed and exploded at Copanca, roughly 25 kilometres from the Moldovan-Ukrainian border, after entering Moldovan airspace. Moldova has no fighter aircraft and no integrated air defence, so incidents on its territory are recorded on impact rather than intercepted in the air.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Jul 2026 | Interception | Romanian F-16 downs Russian drone over the Danube Delta |
| 25 Jul 2026 | Interception | Second Russian drone destroyed by Romanian F-16 in two days |
| 26 Jul 2026 | Interception | Third Russian drone shot down over Romanian territorial waters |
| 27 Jul 2026 | Incursion | Russian drone briefly enters Romanian airspace and returns to Ukraine |
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.