Russia is suspected of being behind a case of “blatant interference” that jammed the navigation system of an airplane carrying European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen as it was attempting to land in Bulgaria.
The jamming incident saw planes near a Bulgarian airport deprived of electronic navigational aids for a period on Sunday afternoon. The commission president’s jet was affected.
Dr von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive that proposes laws, was travelling to Bulgaria as part of a trip visiting seven “front line” states on the EU’s eastern flank near to Russia.
The suspected interference targeting the Bulgarian airport in Plovdiv was first revealed by the Financial Times, which reported the commission president’s jet was forced to land using paper maps, rather than its GPS systems.
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Speaking on Monday, a spokeswoman for the European Commission confirmed the incident was being viewed as a suspected Russian interference operation.
“We have received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia,” she said.
“We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming, but the plane landed safely in Bulgaria.”
The commission described the incident as another example of Russia’s “hostile behaviour” causing disruption to eastern EU states.
The Kremlin has been approached for comment.
The Bulgarian Air Traffic Services Authority confirmed the incident in a statement to the Financial Times.
“Since February 2022, there has been a notable increase in [GPS] jamming and, recently, spoofing occurrences,” it said. “These interferences disrupt the accurate reception of [GPS] signals, leading to various operational challenges for aircraft and ground systems.”
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So-called GPS jamming and spoofing, which distorts or prevents access to the satellite-based navigation system, was traditionally deployed by military and intelligence services to defend sensitive sites, but has increasingly been used by countries such as Russia as a means of disrupting civilian life.
EU governments have warned that rising GPS jamming blamed on Russia risks causing a major air disaster by essentially blinding commercial aircraft mid-journey.
GPS jamming incidents have risen significantly in the Baltic Sea and eastern European states close to Russia in recent years, affecting aircraft, boats and civilians who use the service for day-to-day navigation.
Dr von der Leyen was flying from Warsaw to the central Bulgarian city to meet the country’s prime minister, Rosen Zhelyazkov, and tour an ammunition factory.
“[Russian president Vladimir] Putin has not changed, and he will not change,” von der Leyen told reporters while on the ground in Bulgaria on Sunday. “He is a predator. He can only be kept in check through strong deterrence.”
Bulgaria has been one of the most important European suppliers of military equipment to Ukraine, initially of legacy Soviet-era weaponry in the opening months of the war, and now of artillery and other products produced by the country’s large defence industry.
Dr von der Leyen left Plovdiv on the same plane without incident after the visit.
- Additional reporting The Financial Times
