| Date | 22 Aug 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Incursion |
| Location |
Caplani, Stefan Voda District, Moldova
46.39, 29.87 (approximate) |
Moldova's airspace monitoring systems recorded an unauthorised flight at 04:07 on 22 August 2026, during Russian air attacks on Ukraine overnight. The Defence Ministry identified the aircraft preliminarily as a Shahed-138, the jet-powered Geran-3, and tracked it crossing the state border from Krutoiarivka in Odesa Oblast towards Caplani, in the Stefan Voda district. It left national airspace at 04:24 on the same axis, seventeen minutes after entering, heading back towards Ukraine. No impact or damage was reported on Moldovan territory.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Aug 2026 | Strike | Drone crosses into Romania east of Galati and crashes near Grindu |
| 20 Aug 2026 | Incursion | Russian Il-20 crosses into Finnish airspace south of Utö |
| 20 Aug 2026 | Strike | Drone craters found on Moldovan soil near Giurgiulesti |
| 24 Aug 2026 | Strike | Drone crosses Moldova into Romania and lodges in a Vrancea walnut tree |
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.