| Date | 24 Sep 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Strike |
| Location |
Cernița, Florești District, Moldova
47.97, 28.47 (approximate) |
Moldova's Air Operations Service and Border Police reported repeated unauthorised crossings of northern Moldovan airspace on the morning of 24 September 2026, during Russian strikes on Ukraine, with drones entering from Ukraine's Vinnytsia and Chernivtsi regions towards Vasilcău, Larga and Volovița from 05:21. Northern airspace was closed until 07:46. One drone struck a tree and exploded in a field beside a farm near Cernița, in Florești district; nobody was hurt, according to the police, who said the wreckage, fitted with an onboard camera, had features of the Russian Gerbera type. President Maia Sandu said four Russian drones had violated Moldovan airspace.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Sep 2026 | Incursion | Drones cross northern Moldova overnight and clip Palanca at midday |
| 23 Sep 2026 | Incursion | Russian Mi-8 helicopter crosses from Kaliningrad into Polish airspace near Braniewo |
| 24 Sep 2026 | Strike | Drone enters Romania over northern Botoșani and crashes near Solca after four minutes |
| 26 Sep 2026 | Incursion | Unidentified aerial object crosses Moldova's Transnistrian region for two minutes |
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.