| Date | 26 Aug 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Incursion |
| Location |
Palanca, Stefan Voda District, Moldova
46.41, 30.09 (approximate) |
An unmanned aircraft entered Moldovan airspace over Palanca, in the Stefan Voda district, at 17:38 local time on 26 August 2026 and left five minutes later near Tudora, crossing back into Ukraine towards Hradenytsi in Odesa Oblast. The Air Operations Service of the National Army tracked it on radar; no interception was attempted and no debris or damage was reported. The Ministry of Defence did not identify the type or its operator, saying the unauthorised overflight followed Russian air attacks on Ukraine that day. It was the third crossing of Moldovan airspace in five days.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug 2026 | Strike | Drone crosses Moldova into Romania and lodges in a Vrancea walnut tree |
| 26 Aug 2026 | Strike | Drone crash ignites forest fire near Plauru on the Danube Delta border |
| 27 Aug 2026 | Incursion | Five Russian drones cross Moldova hours before the Independence Day parade |
| 28 Aug 2026 | Incursion | Turkish drone crosses into Greek airspace near Alexandroupolis 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.