| Date | 18 Oct 2026 |
| Tracker | European Airspace Violations |
| Type | Strike |
| Location |
Juodžionys, Pasvalys District, Lithuania
56.15, 24.54 (approximate) |
Lithuanian radars tracked a drone early on 18 October 2026. NATO air policing fighters scrambled from Šiauliai at about 06:15 and followed it over Biržai district, but fog prevented visual identification. Red air alerts went out in Panevėžys and Šiauliai counties shortly after 07:00. At about 07:28 police received a report of an explosion near Juodžionys, in Pasvalys district, where debris dented the doors of a passing car; nobody was hurt. The defence minister said the drone had entered from Poland, whose defence ministry said its radar did not confirm the crossing. The National Crisis Management Centre said it was most likely a Ukrainian drone diverted by Russian jamming; Ukraine's foreign ministry said Russian electronic warfare may have diverted Ukrainian drones and apologised.
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Oct 2026 | Incursion | Russian drone crosses south-eastern Moldova over Purcari for eight minutes |
| 15 Oct 2026 | Incursion | Drone enters Romanian airspace south-east of Sulina for about a minute |
| 16 Oct 2026 | Strike | Drone crashes and explodes near Codrenii Noi after four overnight crossings of Moldova |
| 17 Oct 2026 | Interception | Two jet-powered Geran drones shot down by Romanian F-16s over territorial waters off Sulina |
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.