Russian Drone and Missile Incursions into NATO Territory: The Running Record

A small drone enters Romania through northern Botoșani county, flies about four minutes in national airspace and crashes near Solca in Suceava county without casualties or damage; two F-16s launch from Borcea and RO-Alert warnings go to Botoșani and Suceava. Interim Defence Minister Radu Miruță says the conditions for a shoot-down were not met simultaneously, that eight fighters were scrambled overnight and that drone entries this year are triple last year's, and asks for a protest against Russia; the foreign ministry has issued none by evening.

Four German Eurofighters of Tactical Air Wing 74 begin a roughly week-long deployment to Lielvārde under NATO's enhanced Air Policing North, controlled from Uedem, covering Latvia's 3 October election; Berlin announced the move on 16 September, saying Riga asked for it after "repeated airspace violations with UAVs/drones over the Baltic countries". Italian and Turkish aircraft are due to follow.

A Russian Mi-8 helicopter from the Kaliningrad region crosses into Poland north of Braniewo at 11:08, about 300 metres deep for 42 seconds, per Operational Command; fighters are scrambled and ground-based air defence stands by. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski says an admission of pilot error would settle it and that whether to fire is for the military; no Polish note or summons is announced. Czech Gripens fly their second combat patrol over Poland overnight, after one on 18 September, without using force.

At the Dorohusk crossing, Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz and Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński say six crossings in the Lublin and Subcarpathian voivodeships now have air-defence positions and daily air cover, and Patriot batteries are positioned in the Lublin and Masovian voivodeships; Dorohusk has 650 shelter places. The measures follow the 13 September strikes at Yahodyn.

Poland scrambles fighters at midday for a single fast object — provisionally a jet-powered drone, "or some kind of missile" per Operational Command — that comes down about four kilometres inside Ukraine near Yahodyn, opposite Dorohusk; no violation of Polish airspace. Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk says the operational commander issued a pre-authorised order to shoot had the border been crossed; Lublin and Rzeszów airports suspend operations. Prime Minister Donald Tusk tells the Sejm the intelligence services assess that Russia plans "accidental" drone and missile strikes on states supporting Ukraine, Poland included; he names no service.

President Gitanas Nausėda says after Lithuania's State Defence Council that the Kaišiadorys drone was a Gerbera type, "most likely" a Russian drone intended for Ukraine and diverted by Ukrainian electronic warfare, and that relying on fighter jets is "not an efficient solution"; Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas declines to name an origin before the engine analysis. The same day Poland's military prosecutor in Poznań identifies the drone recovered from the Baltic off Rusinowo on 14 September as a Russian-made Gerbera 2 with a fragmentation-blast warhead and fuze; Poland's Operational Command records no airspace violation since 31 July.

In the State of the Union address in Strasbourg, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposes "Europe's own Article 4 – or an Emergency Security Protocol" — one member state triggers, all convene — citing Denmark, Lithuania, Poland and the Leipzig drone; no legal base, figure or date is attached.

Italian Eurofighters flying Baltic Air Policing from Šiauliai destroy a drone that crossed into Lithuania from Belarus shortly after midnight and spent about thirty minutes in Lithuanian airspace; the wreckage falls near Pratkūnai in Kaišiadorys district, a few kilometres from the Kruonis pumped-storage plant, and the defence minister confirms an explosive device. Vilnius airport halts flights; the military declines to name an origin before its investigation — the mission's fourth kill since May and its second under the Ankara mandate.

Russian drones strike a Kyiv–Warsaw locomotive at Yahodyn station, two kilometres from the Dorohusk crossing, and a truck at a filling station under a kilometre from Poland; Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz counts a dozen or more jet-powered Geran-5 drones, two falling one and five kilometres from the border, with Polish F-16s, helicopters and a Saab reconnaissance aircraft airborne and no violation of Polish airspace.

Romania's defence ministry reports drone remains at four sites on and off the Black Sea coast in one day — Câșla Vădanei and Periteașca in Tulcea County, Edighiol-Periboina in Constanța County, and two fragments recovered 46 nautical miles east of Midia; one Periteașca fragment and an interceptor drone at Edighiol-Periboina carried explosives and were neutralised. Two F-16s had been scrambled at about 04:15 for a group of targets north of Vylkove; the ministry records no entry into national airspace and names no origin.

Germany attributes the Leipzig/Halle drone to Russia: Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul say low-level operatives acted on behalf of Russian state entities, naming no service, suspect or arrest; Berlin orders Russia's consulate-general in Bonn closed by 18 September. "We are not at war," Dobrindt says; no Article 4 request follows.

During a Ukrainian attack on Ust-Luga, Estonia tracks roughly ten drones near its border; one crosses into south-eastern Estonia and stays near the border. Ground-based air defence units are activated and Turkish F-16s scramble from Ämari without firing, per air force commander Brigadier General Riivo Valge; no criteria for holding fire are published. The same day a damaged drone carrying explosives is found in a field at Viișoara, Vaslui County, 30 kilometres from Romania's Moldovan border, and destroyed in a controlled detonation, origin undetermined.

Interior ministers of ten Baltic Sea and partner states meet at the Mürwik naval academy in Flensburg under Alexander Dobrindt and agree a security task force at state-secretary level to coordinate responses to hybrid attacks, with drone defence at airports and ports the focus; no NATO or EU instrument is attached, and a further ministerial on the shadow fleet is announced without a date.

Romanian F-16s destroy an explosive-laden sea drone reported drifting a few hundred metres from the Neptun Deep gas works in Romania's exclusive economic zone, about 80 nautical miles east of Constanța, with cannon fire after a defence-ministry command cell requested that NATO-level command be assumed by the Romanian Armed Forces; Defence Minister Radu Miruță says Kyiv, contacted through an established channel, confirmed the device was not Ukrainian, and President Nicușor Dan names Russia. A maritime rather than airspace incursion; the response ran national, despite the July extension of the Romanian–Bulgarian–Turkish task force to infrastructure protection.

Hours earlier, during the same night's barrage on Kyiv, an aerial drone enters Romanian airspace about 13 km east of Galați — radar picks up a group of aerial assets near the Ukrainian border at 02:23 — and crashes and burns four kilometres north-east of Grindu, Tulcea County, at 03:24 in an uninhabited area; two Spanish F-18s and an IAR-330 helicopter are scrambled to track it, no engagement, no casualties.

Latvia's armed forces identify the drone an Italian Eurofighter shot down over Balvi on 14 August as Ukrainian: it entered from Belarus, most likely diverted by Russian electronic-warfare interference during Ukrainian attacks on Russian ports that night — attribution arriving six days after an engagement taken under the delegated NATO chain, which did not depend on origin.

A Spanish F-18 on NATO air policing from Mihail Kogălniceanu shoots down a drone that entered Romanian airspace from the Moldovan side about 24 km north of Galați (detected 04:44, engaged 05:01, probable impact between Baleni and Cudalbi in Galați county); the Romanian defence ministry says clearance ran through NATO's Combined Air Operations Centre at Torrejón — Romania's fourth shoot-down of the year, per the ministry.

An Italian Eurofighter on Baltic Air Policing shoots down a drone over Latvia's Balvi region (Rugāji parish) after Russian electronic warfare pushes it off course — the mission's third kill since May.

NATO's North Atlantic Council calls the Polish and Romanian violations evidence of Russia's "increasing tolerance for risk"; no ally invokes Article 4. Separately, security staff log six overnight drone flights over the Bundeswehr's Mechernich facility that services Patriot batteries, and Inspector General Carsten Breuer cites three large drones over Belgium's Kleine-Brogel, which stores B61 weapons.

A drone crosses from Romanian into Bulgarian airspace undetected by either country's surveillance and explodes near the Kardam border crossing, roughly a kilometre from a Trans-Balkan gas pipeline compressor station; Sofia's preliminary reading is a stray Ukrainian Maya decoy, not deliberate.

Germany's Federal Prosecutor General takes over the Leipzig/Halle drone investigation, alleging attempted causing of an explosion; a police document and the interior ministry give conflicting accounts of whether an adjacent Ukrainian Antonov carried military ammunition.

An airport bus driver finds a drone carrying an explosive device on the cargo apron at Leipzig/Halle airport, a NATO heavy-airlift and Ukrainian Antonov hub; flight operations halt for close to two hours and almost 20 DHL freighters are diverted.

Poland dates the Kh-101 recovered near Tarnawa-Kolonia to second-quarter 2026 production near Moscow; the foreign ministry summons Russia's ambassador and hands over a protest note. Article 4 remains unused.

A Russian Kh-101 cruise missile comes down roughly 100 kilometres inside Poland near Tarnawa-Kolonia; a Polish F-16 tracks it but does not fire; military command says it stood ready to shoot had the missile continued flying.

Romania expels a Russian diplomat and recalls its ambassador from Moscow after four drone incursions in four days; the fourth target crosses Romanian airspace toward Ukraine unengaged, with no reason given.

A third Romanian F-16 shoot-down in three days, over Romanian territorial waters near Sulina.

A second Romanian drone shoot-down near Sfântu Gheorghe, the day after the Buzău engagement.

A Romanian F-16 destroys a Shahed-type drone over Buzău county on authority cleared through NATO's Combined Air Operations Centre at Torrejón, after two Italian Typhoons engage and miss — 83 minutes from detection to kill, over uninhabited ground.

NATO's Ankara summit converts Baltic Air Policing into an "air defence mission," vesting engagement authority in SACEUR and delegating it through the Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem to the cockpit; Estonia's Ämari base is redesignated a NATO operational air base.

A French Rafale on Baltic Air Policing shoots down a drone that crossed into Latvian airspace near Bērzgale; Latvia's defence minister says the engagement decision was taken by NATO command.

A Russian Geran-2 drone strikes an apartment block in Galați, injuring two civilians; Romanian F-16s were airborne and cleared to fire but the four-minute, low-altitude track over populated ground precluded engagement.

A Romanian F-16 flying Baltic Air Policing from Šiauliai destroys a Ukrainian drone diverted by Russian electronic warfare over southern Estonia.

Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa forces Defence Minister Andris Sprūds' resignation over the government's response to the Rēzekne strike; Army Colonel Raivis Melnis, a serving officer, is appointed to a portfolio previously held by civilians.

Two drones diverted by Russian electronic warfare enter Latvian airspace; one strikes the Rēzekne oil-storage depot, damaging four tanks. Military drone detection fails and public warnings are delayed roughly an hour.

A Russian drone damages property at Galați after four minutes inside national airspace; roughly 200 residents are evacuated and Russia's ambassador is summoned.

Romania tests the Merops counter-drone system at Capu Midia; Defence Minister Radu Miruță declares it operational "within days," covering the Danube corridor.

Drones strike NATO territory in Estonia (the Auvere power station) and Latvia (the Kraslava region) on the same day, during a Russian barrage of over 550 drones and missiles against Ukraine; neither is intercepted.

A Swedish naval vessel jams a suspected Russian reconnaissance drone in the Øresund Strait roughly 13 kilometres from the French carrier Charles de Gaulle, moored at Malmö.

NATO launches Arctic Sentry, led from Joint Force Command Norfolk, extending the enhanced-vigilance-activity template built for Baltic and Eastern Sentry to the High North.

Drones force a temporary shutdown of Munich Airport, with sightings also reported near the Erding military site, days after multiple drones were seen over critical infrastructure in Schleswig-Holstein.

A wave of drone disruptions hits Danish airports and air bases — Copenhagen, Billund, Aalborg, Esbjerg, Sønderborg, Skrydstrup, Karup — through 28 September, around the Copenhagen EU leaders' summit; Denmark requests an RAF counter-UAS detachment.

Three Russian MiG-31 fighters spend roughly 12 minutes in Estonian airspace; Estonia requests Article 4 consultations.

NATO launches Eastern Sentry, an open-ended enhanced vigilance activity along the entire eastern flank.

At least 19 Russian drones cross into Polish airspace overnight during a strike wave against Ukraine; several are shot down. Poland requests Article 4 consultations; Estonia follows on 19 September, and no ally has requested consultations since.

NATO launches Baltic Sentry after the severing of the Estlink 2 power cable, setting the enhanced-vigilance-activity template later applied to Eastern and Arctic Sentry.

A missile kills two people at Przewodów, Poland; a Polish investigation later concludes it was a Ukrainian air-defence round rather than a deliberate Russian strike — the precedent Warsaw has invoked in 2026 for insisting on attribution before declaring intent.