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NATO is working to combat the clogged Russian civilian flights, the alliance chief said on Tuesday, two days after the plane carrying the European Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen lost its ability to use GPS navigation in Bulgaria’s airspace.
The plane safely landed on Sunday, but Bulgarian authorities said they suspected Russia was behind the interference.
The entire continent was “a direct threat from the Russians,” Secretary-General Mark Latte said at a press conference in Luxembourg that he was the prime minister of the principality and the defense minister.
“We are all on the east side now, whether you live in London or Tallinn.”
“It’s taken very seriously,” Latte added.
Rutte said the jamming was part of a complex Russian campaign of hybrid threats, including cutting off submarine power and communications cables in the Baltic Sea and cyberattacks on UK health services.
“I’ve always hated the word hybrid because it sounds very embracing, but hybrids are exactly the jamming of this commave plane and have a potentially disastrous effect,” Latte said.
Tracking the suspected attack in Russia
The GPS jamming attack on von der Leyen is the latest in a campaign of chaos in Europe that was denounced by Russia, and the head of the UK’s foreign intelligence agency described it as “surprisingly reckless.”
Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western officials have accused the proxy of staging dozens of hybrid war attacks with Russia, ranging from vandalism to arson.
Radio interference from Russia includes jamming when strong radio signals overwhelm communications and spoofing or misleading interference to believe the receiver is in different places or times.
“The threat from the Russians is increasing every day. Let’s not be naive about it. This may one day include Luxembourg.
“For example, with the latest Russian missile technology, the difference between the frontline Lithuania and Luxembourg is that the Hague or Madrid is 5-10 minutes. This requires this missile to reach these regions of Europe.”
Bulgaria will not investigate the clogging of von der Leyen’s planes because “that’s what happens every day,” Prime Minister Rosen Ziyazkov said Tuesday.
He said it was one of the side effects of the Russian war in Ukraine and occurred throughout Europe.
Neither the Kremlin nor von der Leyen publicly commented on the incident.
Additional sources •AP