Bulgarian authorities have confirmed that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane experienced external interference with its GPS network during landing, and they suspect Russia was behind it.

Source: Arianna Podestà, European Commission Deputy Chief Spokesperson, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Bulgaria suspects that the Russians jammed the GPS signal during von der Leyen’s landing in Plovdiv.

Quote: “We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming, but the plane landed safely in Bulgaria. We have received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia.”

Details: Podestà also said that the European Union knows and is “used somehow to threats and intimidations that are a regular component of Russia’s hostile behaviour”.

“Of course, this will only reinforce even further our unshakable commitment to ramp up defence capabilities and support for Ukraine. This incident actually underlines the urgency of the mission that the president is carrying out in the frontline member states,” she noted.

Podestà said that Ursula von der Leyen has seen “firsthand the everyday challenges of threats coming from Russia and its proxies”.

Background:

A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was forced to land at the airport of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, using paper maps because of GPS failures.Von der Leyen was flying from Warsaw to Plovdiv to meet Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov and to visit an ammunition factory.After the visit, the European Commission president left Plovdiv without incident on the same aircraft.Estonia previously said that Russia’s GPS interference constitutes a violation of international law.Recently, 13 EU countries called on the European Commission to take measures in response to disruptions of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) across the EU.

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