| Date | 19 Sep 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Incursion |
| Location |
Caplani, Stefan Voda District, Moldova
46.39, 29.87 (approximate) |
Moldova's Border Police reported that patrols in the eastern regional directorate's area of responsibility observed several unidentified aircraft over Moldovan airspace early on 19 September 2026. Around 04:00 several were seen near Caplani, two of them crossing on the Olanesti-Cistovodnoe axis; in the same period another was observed above Caplani coming from the direction of Crocmaz and left national airspace towards Crutoiarovca. At 05:19 the Ukrainian side told the Border Police that an object had been seen falling and catching fire about 1.5 to 2 kilometres from the state border near Troitcoe. No state was officially blamed.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 21 Sep 2026 | Incursion | Drones cross northern Moldova overnight and clip Palanca at midday |
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.