Fighter regiment of the Red Army air force; the unit later based at Mărculești and inherited by Moldova in 1992.

Moldova’s air force has no Second World War history of its own, but its one fighter unit did. The regiment that Moldova took over at Mărculești in April 1992 was formed as the 20th Fighter Aviation Regiment in mid-1941, renumbered the 744th in January 1942 and made the 86th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment in May 1943, a Guards title given for combat performance. English Wikipedia, citing the Russian aviation historian Anton Pavlov, credits it with 10,865 sorties and 393 enemy aircraft claimed, for the loss of 120 aircraft and 71 pilots. After the war it served on occupation duty in Germany before moving to the Moldavian SSR in 1951. The figures are the Soviet unit’s own claims, never cross-checked against German records in the sources used here, and the lineage is one of equipment and garrison rather than of people: most of the regiment’s Soviet officers left in 1992.

Outcome The regiment ended the war as a Guards unit and moved to Mărculești on 24 October 1951.

Claims of enemy aircraft destroyed are unit claims and unverified. The aircraft types flown and the fronts on which the regiment served were not confirmed and are left out.

Flying for

Soviet Air Force: 86th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (predecessor unit, then the 20th and 744th regiments)

Where

Eastern Front

Alongside

Soviet Union

Against

Germany

Aircraft

Soviet fighters

Sorties

10,86510,865 sorties, per English Wikipedia citing Anton Pavlov (airforce.ru).

Losses

120 aircraft · 71 killed120 aircraft lost and 71 pilots killed; the regiment claimed 393 enemy aircraft. All figures are the regiment’s own record as reported by Pavlov, via English Wikipedia.

Sources

English Wikipedia

Flew at least one strike with MiG-29s against the Bender–Parcani bridge on 22 June 1992.

Tension between Chișinău and the Russian-speaking authorities on the left bank of the Dniester, who had proclaimed their own republic in 1990, turned into open fighting in March 1992. Moldova’s police and new army fought the Transnistrian forces and Cossack volunteers; English Wikipedia counts Romanian volunteers and advisers on the Moldovan side. On 22 June 1992, according to Wikipedia, two Moldovan MiG-29s attacked the road bridge between Bender and Parcani: no bomb hit the bridge directly, but near misses caused blast and splinter damage. From 23 June General Alexander Lebed’s Russian 14th Army entered the fighting directly, which Wikipedia calls crucial to the outcome, and a massive artillery strike on 3 July broke the Moldovan force. The ceasefire of 21 July froze the conflict. Moldova’s National Defence Strategy 2024–2034 calls the Russian forces still in the region illegally stationed and the conflict unresolved, and commits Moldova to an exclusively peaceful settlement; Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warned in September 2022 against anything that would threaten the security of Russian troops there.

Outcome Ceasefire of 21 July 1992, signed by Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Mircea Snegur, with a peacekeeping force under a Joint Control Commission. Transnistria remains outside Moldovan government control but is recognised internationally as part of Moldova.

The loss of a MiG-29 is a single-source claim and is not counted. Casualty totals are estimates. Transnistria’s own authorities describe the war as a defence of their republic; that view is not adopted here.

Flying for

Moldovan Air Force

Where

Bender and the Dniester valley

Alongside

No allied air arm

Against

Transnistrian separatist forces and Russian 14th Army (from 23 June 1992, per English Wikipedia)

Aircraft

MiG-29

Sorties

2Two MiG-29s in the one attack documented in the sources checked; any other sorties are unrecorded there.

Losses

Disputed. The Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi (2022) says one Moldovan MiG-29 was shot down during the war; no Moldovan official confirmation was found, and English Wikipedia’s war article does not report the loss. The war as a whole killed nearly 1,000 people and wounded close to 3,000, by Wikipedia’s estimate.

Sources

English Wikipedia · Militarnyi · Strategia națională de apărare 2024–2 · English Wikipedia · English Wikipedia

Tracks missiles and drones crossing from the war in Ukraine, closes airspace when civil aviation is at risk and clears debris; it has no fighters to intercept.

Moldova is not a party to the war, but its sky is part of it. On 10 October 2022 three Russian missiles launched from the Black Sea crossed Moldovan airspace, and the foreign minister, Nicu Popescu, summoned the Russian ambassador; on 31 October debris from a missile shot down over Ukraine fell at Naslavcea, breaking windows. English Wikipedia lists further finds at Larga, Etulia and, in September 2023, Chițcani, the first in the Transnistrian region. The Ministry of Defence’s own count, published on 24 September 2026, gives 81 violations since 2022 — 4 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 10 in 2024, 17 in 2025 and 44 in 2026 — by Russian and Iranian-made missiles and drones, including decoys. More than ten times the airspace had to be closed to civil flights. The ministry admits that some objects flew at heights its sensors could not detect, and uses that to argue for new surveillance and air defence equipment, which the European Union has been funding since 2023.

Outcome Continuing. 81 violations by 24 September 2026, 44 of them in 2026.

Attribution of individual drones and missiles is the Moldovan government’s; Russia has not accepted responsibility for specific incidents in the sources checked.

Flying for

National Army air operations service and air defence

Where

Moldovan airspace

Alongside

No allied air arm

Sorties

Not applicable; ground-based surveillance.

Losses

0 aircraftNo Moldovan military losses reported in the sources checked. The ministry records 13 incidents that ended in explosions and 17 ground finds without damage.

Sources

Ministerul Apărării · English Wikipedia · Ministerul Apărării