| Date | 17 Sep 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Incursion |
| Location |
Tudora, Stefan Voda District, Moldova
46.43, 30.04 (approximate) |
An unidentified drone briefly entered Moldovan airspace on the morning of 17 September 2026, while Russia was striking Ukraine's Odesa region. The Air Operations Service reported that the aircraft crossed the state border without authorisation at 08:56, coming from the direction of Biliaivka in Ukraine towards Tudora, and left national airspace at 08:58 from Palanca, heading back over Lake Davidove Liman. No operator was named and no damage was reported. It was the third crossing of Moldovan airspace logged here in ten days.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 14 Sep 2026 | Incursion | Two drones cross Moldovan airspace at Palanca and Cioburciu within the hour |
| 15 Sep 2026 | Incursion | Russian Gerbera drone crosses from Belarus into Lithuanian airspace and is shot down near Kaunas |
| 18 Sep 2026 | Strike | Drone crashes and explodes near Chisinau at Colonita |
| 19 Sep 2026 | Incursion | Drones cross Moldovan airspace at Caplani before leaving towards 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.