Russia hits VDL's flight with electronic warfare
The GPS jamming hit the systems of the Bulgarian airport where the European President was landing
Russia is accused of conducting an electronic warfare attack against EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as she visited states on the frontline of the Russia-Ukraine war.
The EU confirmed the attack took place while the President’s plane was landing at the small military-civilian-use Plovdiv, in south-central Bulgaria, on Sunday, just hours after Von der Leyen called Russian President Vladimir Putin a ‘predator’ who had started four wars in Europe, including in Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea and Ukraine and would not change.
While various media have reported that the President’s aircraft was jammed, European sources told Latika Takes that the plane itself was not interfered with, but that the attackers jammed the entire GPS of the airport.
This meant that the pilot of the President’s plane had to land using paper maps as they could not access the airport’s signals. Similarly, media reports that that plane was forced to circle for an hour are also inaccurate.
FlightRadar, a website that monitors air traffic, said the flight was scheduled to take 1 hour and 48 minutes but ended up taking 1 hour and 57 minutes, and the airport’s transponder reported good GPS signal quality throughout the flight.
‘We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming, but the plane landed safely in Bulgaria,’ Commission spokeswoman Arianna Podesta said at a briefing.
‘We have received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia.’
Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to the Ukrainian government, said: ‘Russia has made an assassination attempt of the President of the European Commission.’
But Keir Giles, a Russia expert, who warned about the increasing danger of Russia’s jamming attacks in his book published last year Who Will Save Europe, said that was a ‘silly’ description of what had happened as jamming attacks were frequent.
‘Normalised, is exactly the word — this happens all the time,’ Mr Giles said in an interview by phone.
He said the former UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps had his plane electronically interfered with during a trip over the Baltic — former Soviet Union states — in 2024.
‘Despite the fact that it’s happening all the time, it was only because it was somebody that the media had heard of that was involved that it made all of the headlines,’ he said.
‘This is part of everyday business in the Baltic.’
Mr Giles said the Russians began experimenting with jamming in around 2014 to practice taking on NATO, but soon realised it could be used outside of full-scale war.
‘It’s incredibly inconvenient and expensive for all the countries that are affected,’ he said.
‘And it’s also a means of probing and testing the West, doing things that ought to be unacceptable and confirming that they can get away with it.
‘So it’s grown and grown and grown.’
Ms Podesta, the EU spokeswoman, added: ‘We are of course, aware and used to somehow, to the threats and intimidations that are a regular component to Russia’s hostile behaviour.’
She said it had only made the EU more resolute to stand by Ukraine. The EU President announced on her tour of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania that the new €150 billion in loans to member states for rearmament had been fully subscribed.
The loans mean that member states can take out contracts spanning several years to buy new missiles, drones and cyberdefences.
Europe’s frontline states are the biggest supporters of European rearmament as they are worried that Russia will try to attack them if President Putin claims victory in Ukraine.
Mr Putin has made no secret of his ambitions to break up NATO and the European Union, which he considers a threat to Russian security.
The Institute for the Study of War said the latest reports of likely Russian GPS jamming ‘indicate that Russia is continuing its hybrid operations in Europe, and Russia could continue to target Western political and military officials as part of these operations.’
‘Von der Leyen has notably been leading discussions with European and US officials about possible European troop deployments as part of security guarantees for Ukraine after the war,’ the Institute said in its daily update on the war in Ukraine.
Malcolm Davis from the Canberra-based defence and security Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank said mere condemnation was not enough.
‘How does Europe and NATO intend to respond to continuing Russian hybrid attacks on its territory?’ Mr Davis said.
‘No response just emboldens Moscow to become more aggressive.’
The attack on the President’s flight, which the Kremlin denied, came less than a week after Russia targeted and killed at least 23 Ukrainian civillians, including children, as they slept in Kyiv.
The attack also involved two missiles — which are highly precise — and came within 50 metres of the EU delegation building in Kyiv and the nearby British Council.
The targeting of innocent children and civillians as well as allied diplomatic missions prompted an outcry from Kyiv’s partners, and leaders of the Coalition of the Willing.
Coalition of the Willing leaders from Europe will gather in Paris on Thursday to lock in what sort of security guarantee they can offer Ukraine. President von der Leyen said ‘precise plans’ were being drawn up for a multinational troop deployment to Ukraine.
President Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer are joint sponsors of the Coalition.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Monday night, UK Secretary of Defence John Healey said the multinational force would help ‘secure the peace tomorrow.’
‘Some 200 military planners from more than 30 nations have helped design plans in the event of a ceasefire: plans to secure the skies and seas, and to train Ukrainian forces to defend their nation,’ he said.
‘For the armed forces, I am reviewing readiness levels and accelerating funding to prepare for any possible deployment.
‘Peace is possible, and we will be ready.'
Questioned about the nature of the security guarantees extracted from the Trump Administration, Mr Healey said: ‘The commitments we have secured already from many of those involved in the discussion are substantial.’
‘The discussions continue, and we look for contributions to be further confirmed.
‘Much of the shape of any deployment of a coalition of the willing will depend on the terms of any peace agreement.’
This is an adapted version of an article first published by The Nightly