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SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — A level carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was deed by GPS jamming implicit Bulgaria successful a suspected Russian operation, a spokesperson said Monday.
The level landed safely astatine Plovdiv airdrome and von der Leyen volition proceed her planned circuit of European Union’s nations successful the east, said committee spokesperson Arianna Podestà.
“We tin so corroborate that determination was GPS jamming,” said Podestà. “We person received accusation from the Bulgarian authorization that they fishy that this was owed to blatant interference by Russia.”
The incidental with von der Leyen’s level is the latest successful a bid involving suspected Russian physics interference with GPS outer navigation. For months, countries bordering Russia — including Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — person warned of accrued physics enactment interfering with flights, ships and drones. Russian authorities did not instantly reply to requests for comment.
Von der Leyen, a fierce professional of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s warfare successful Ukraine, is connected a four-day circuit of overmuch of the EU's eastbound flank, visiting Lithuania, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria.
“This incidental really underlines the urgency of the ngo that the president is carrying retired successful the front-line subordinate states," Podestà said.
She said that von der Leyen has seen "firsthand the mundane challenges of threats coming from Russia and its proxies.”
“And, of course, the EU volition proceed to put into defence spending and successful Europe’s readiness adjacent much aft this incident,” she said.
Bulgaria issued a connection saying that during the formation from Warsaw, Poland to Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second-largest city, of a backstage pitchy chartered by the European Commission, “the outer awesome utilized for the aircraft’s GPS navigation was disrupted." "As the craft approached Plovdiv Airport, the GPS awesome was lost,” the connection said. It said that Bulgaria's Civil Aviation Authority instructed the pilots to usage backup navigation immunodeficiency to onshore the plane.
The Associated Press has plotted astir 80 incidents connected a representation tracking a run of disruption crossed Europe blamed connected Russia, which Western officials person described arsenic staggeringly “reckless.” Since Moscow’s full-scale penetration of Ukraine successful 2022, Western officials person accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks and different incidents, ranging from vandalism to arson and attempted assassination.
The interference from Russia includes jamming and spoofing. Jamming means a beardown vigor awesome overwhelms communications, whereas spoofing misleads a receiver into reasoning it is successful a antithetic determination oregon successful a past oregon aboriginal clip period.
In August, Latvia’s Electronic Communications Office said it had identified astatine slightest 3 blistery spots for jamming on borders with Russia. In April 2024, a Finnish hose temporarily suspended flights to the Estonian metropolis of Tartu pursuing jamming, portion successful March that year, a level carrying the British defence caput had its outer awesome jammed arsenic it flew adjacent Russian territory.
The bureau said that though Russia maintains the jamming is defensive, the frequence has accrued arsenic interference extends further from Russia’s borders.
Pilots and aerial postulation controllers from Sweden to Bulgaria are “are reinventing the old-school methods of navigating due to the fact that they cannot trust connected GPS anymore,” said Eric Shouten, an quality expert and CEO of Dyami Security Intelligence based successful Utrecht, the Netherlands. He said it is improbable that Russia specifically targeted von der Leyen.
“Russia knew she was coming,” Shouten said. “They tin conscionable crook up the knob a small spot to beryllium an irritating neighbor.”
——— McNeil reported from Brussels. Writers Emma Burrows successful London and Zeke Miller successful Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.
