Between January and April 2025, approximately 123,000 aircraft flying over Baltic airspace had their signals affected by Russian jamming and spoofing of satellite navigation signals, posing a serious threat to aviation safety in the region, according to a report submitted by regional governments to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The report was revealed by the Swedish broadcaster SVT amid rising tensions between Moscow and the EU, as the war launched by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 drags on with no signs of easing, despite recent mediation attempts by US President Donald Trump.
Interference spiked in April alone, affecting 27.4% of flights in the region. The source of the disruptions was traced to Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Smolensk and Rostov, impacting flights over Sweden, Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
NATO Says it’s working to counter Russian GPS jamming after interference with European Commission leader’s planehttps://t.co/Qb5c6NhNKu pic.twitter.com/dWujabWO1V
— TIME (@TIME) September 2, 2025
Airlines have been advised to remain on alert for further disruptions. Sweden’s Defence Minister said his government was prepared to respond to continuing threats.
The head of the Swedish Transport Agency, Andreas Holmgren, considers the situation ‘serious’ and told SVT that interference incidents have continued to rise.
A high-profile incident that attracted international attention occurred on 31 August when a plane chartered by the European Commission, carrying its president, Ursula von der Leyen, lost its GPS signal while approaching Plovdiv Airport in Bulgaria. According to a Financial Times reporter who was on board, the pilots had to circle for almost an hour before being cleared to land the aircraft manually using paper charts. However, this statement was later denied by Politico, which cited JACDEC, Flightradar24, and SkAI Data Services as indicating that von der Leyen’s flight was delayed by only ten minutes, not an hour as initially reported.
The GPS system of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's airplane was jammed while en route to Bulgaria. An EU spokesperson said that Russian interference was suspected https://t.co/lyHN0mcILe pic.twitter.com/daPB1F8OSJ
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 1, 2025
Von der Leyen was on a ‘front line’ tour of eastern states considered crucial by NATO and the EU as a buffer against potential Russian aggression.
Initially, both Brussels and Sofia blamed Moscow for the GPS disruption, although an investigation was not immediately launched. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov was quick to dismiss the incident as routine radio disturbances, declaring that there was ‘no need to investigate’. He later reversed this decision, however, ordering aviation authorities to conduct a thorough investigation.
Despite denials from the Kremlin, EU spokesperson Paula Pinho has confirmed the broader trend, stating that ‘independently of what happened on that particular flight, there has been a considerable and very notable increase in GPS jamming and spoofing since the beginning of the war in Ukraine’.
Report: Russian GPS interference disrupts 123,000 flights in four monthshttps://t.co/SCRIz2jaKt pic.twitter.com/2oPit6sio4
— Andre Orban ✈ (@sn26567) September 5, 2025
Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius has announced plans to launch new low-Earth orbit satellites to strengthen resilience and mitigate the impact of jamming.
While no accidents have been reported, aviation authorities emphasise that aircraft and air traffic control systems have multiple backup systems in place for emergencies, such as ground-based navigation aids (like VOR/DME), inertial navigation systems (IRS) and paper charts, to ensure flights can reach their destinations safely.
