Signal disruptions are a daily reality in countries neighboring Russia, Lithuania said, days after the GPS on Ursula von der Leyen’s plane was reportedly jammed over Bulgaria.
“Among numerous hostile activities, the endangering of a plane carrying the President of the European Commission is the clearest illustration of this threat,” Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said. “These are not isolated incidents but systematic actions that jeopardize civil air, maritime and land traffic, as well as critical infrastructure in violation of Russia’s international commitments.”
While authorities in Sofia and Brussels have given conflicting accounts of what happened to von der Leyen’s plane on Sunday — with some pointing the finger at Moscow — bordering states have faced hybrid warfare from Russia for years, Lithuania’s ambassador to the EU, Nerijus Aleksiejūnas, emphasized.
“There were some examples when large ships refused to enter the Klaipėda port” over safety reasons after the GPS signal was hacked, he said. Meanwhile, pilots have been under “big stress” that prompted Lithuanian authorities to offer more training to land under such circumstances.
“Even farmers who are working in this area are complaining about the problem and economic losses” after signal interference disrupted connected tools like draining systems.
More than 1,000 Lithuanian aircraft and 33 ships experienced navigation signal disruptions in August alone, according to the country’s communications regulator, RRT.
But the issue extends across the region.
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Frontline countries are bracing for more. “We see the trend that Russia is investing much more in this activity,” Aleksiejūnas said, pointing to an increase in spoofing sources from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in recent months.
Data from RRT shows an uptick from three locations in February to 29 in August. “These sources have quite a long range and the possibility to affect the territory” up to 400 km, he added — placing Berlin, for instance, under threat.
This makes jamming and spoofing a European problem, stretching well beyond the Baltic region. Russia is “developing technologies and they will be used against us. Not against just Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, or some neighboring countries, but against Europe,” the Lithuanian official said.
With the backing of other EU capitals, Vilnius put the issue on the agenda last June, aiming to rally Brussels. “It’s not enough just to do that in one part of Europe. We need to do that collectively.”
Mitigating options include better monitoring, training, and investment, along with coordinated advocacy and efforts to make Russia abide by international law.
“The European Union must respond decisively: impose tough sanctions, mobilize international action through the International Telecommunication Union, and accelerate investment in resilient technologies,” Lithuania’s Budrys said.
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