| Date | 14 Sep 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Incursion |
| Location |
Cioburciu, Stefan Voda District, Moldova
46.60, 29.70 (approximate) |
Moldova's Air Operations Service recorded two unauthorised border crossings on the morning of 14 September 2026, during Russian strikes on Ukraine's Odesa region. The first drone entered near Palanca from the direction of Maiaky at 10:33, flew about 500 metres into Moldovan territory and returned along the same track a minute later; the Border Police and Ukraine's State Border Guard Service both confirmed the crossing. A second drone entered at 11:09 near Cioburciu, tracked towards Pervomaisc in the Transnistrian sector and left national airspace at 11:19. Moldova raised the 8, 12 and 14 September incidents at the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 12 Sep 2026 | Strike | Drone crosses Moldova into Romania and comes down in a Suceava cornfield |
| 15 Sep 2026 | Incursion | Russian Gerbera drone crosses from Belarus into Lithuanian airspace and is shot down near Kaunas |
| 17 Sep 2026 | Incursion | Unidentified drone crosses Moldovan airspace at Tudora for two minutes |
| 18 Sep 2026 | Strike | Drone crashes and explodes near Chisinau at Colonita |
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.