The GPS system of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's aeroplane was jammed while en route on Sunday to Bulgaria, where it landed safely, an EU spokesperson has said, confirming earlier media reports.
"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," the spokesperson said on Monday.
The Russian government did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The EU gave no further details, but the spokesperson said the incident would reinforce the bloc's "unshakable commitment to ramp up defence capabilities and support for Ukraine" against Russia's three-and-a-half-year-old military offensive.
In a statement, Bulgaria's government said the GPS signal was lost as von der Leyen’s plane approached the southern city of Plovdiv, prompting air traffic controllers to switch to ground-based navigation systems to ensure a safe landing.
The incident occurred while von der Leyen was on a four-day tour to EU member states that border Russia.
"The EU will continue to invest in defence spending and in Europe's readiness even more after this incident."
'Such incidents have become increasingly frequent'
Germany's top military commander also revealed on Monday that his aircraft was allegedly targeted by Russian GPS jamming attacks twice while flying over the Baltic Sea region in recent months.
Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, Gen. Carsten Breuer said he did not yet have details on the latest GPS jamming incident that targeted EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, but said such incidents have become increasingly frequent.
"I have personally experienced this twice," he told reporters. "The first incident occurred while my plane was flying over the Baltic Sea as I was travelling northward. The second incident was during a visit to a military exercise in Lithuania, the Iron Wolf exercise,” he said.
The German general said that during this period, a Russian reconnaissance aircraft was present in Belarusian airspace, apparently monitoring the exercise.
"They are doing everything in their power to gather information about us. And, where possible, they are trying to test us, like GPS jamming, or by other methods of disruption to simply find out how we behave, so that they can then draw conclusions," he said.
