| Date | 9 Aug 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Strike |
| Location |
Crocmaz, Moldova
46.45, 29.98 (approximate) |
A Russian drone crashed and exploded near the village of Crocmaz, breaking windows in nearby houses and starting a vegetation fire. Preliminary reports suggested it may have been a rocket-powered drone, the first identified in Moldova. Chișinău recalled its ambassador from Moscow for consultations on 10 August, and the Russian embassy accused Moldova of using the explosion as a pretext to worsen relations. The Moldovan defence ministry counted 60 airspace violations by Russian missiles and drones as of 28 July 2026, rising from 5 in 2022 to 21 in 2025 and 15 in the first seven months of 2026.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Aug 2026 | Incursion | Two drones overfly German military base at Mechernich |
| 8 Aug 2026 | Strike | Drone crosses from Romania and explodes in Bulgarian field |
| 10 Aug 2026 | Incursion | Russian Geran-3 crosses Moldovan airspace for one minute |
| 11 Aug 2026 | Incursion | Untrackable drone delays flights at Hanover airport |
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.