A plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, suffered from jamming of GPS navigation while flying over Bulgaria and Bulgarian authorities believe that Russia was behind the operation, her organization said on Monday.
The plane landed safely in Bulgaria, Arianna Podestà, an E.U. spokeswoman, told reporters, without elaborating. Ms. von der Leyen, who has been on a tour of European Union member states that are near Russia or share its borders, has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Ms. Podestà said that Bulgarian officials suspected that the episode “was due to blatant interference by Russia.” She directed questions about whether the plane was specifically targeted to the Bulgarian authorities, who did not immediately respond to questions.
A Kremlin spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The episode would be the latest example of GPS jamming, in which satellite signals are drowned out. It can confuse pilots and has been rising around the world in recent years, but especially near conflict zones.
“We have been seeing quite a lot of such jamming and spoofing activities, notably, in the eastern flank of Europe,” Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, another spokeswoman for the E.U. executive arm, the European Commission, told reporters. She said that Europe was the most affected region in the world for the interference, which she called an “almost daily practice.”
Russian obstruction and sabotage have expanded over continental Europe. Intelligence officials have tracked Russia’s covert efforts, including targeting undersea cables, warehouses and railways, which may be designed to pressure Europe and the United States to curb their support for Ukraine.
Russian jamming has also made some American-made, precision-guided weapons in Ukraine ineffective and snarled the flights of Ukrainian drones, according to Ukrainian commanders.
Ms. von der Leyen joined other European leaders in the Oval Office last month to back up President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine as he met with President Trump. Those efforts to press for a lasting security guarantee and an immediate cease-fire have failed to yield a clear path forward for peace in Ukraine.
The jamming, Ms. Podestà said, would reinforce the European Commission’s commitments to “ramp up defense capabilities and support for Ukraine.”
“This incident actually underlines the urgency of the mission” of Ms. von der Leyen’s trip this week, Ms. Podestà added.
Ms. von der Leyen started the tour on Friday in Riga, Latvia, before traveling to Finland, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria. On Monday, Ms. von der Leyen was set to meet with Romanian leaders.
Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.
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