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Headline: GPS jamming on von der Leyen’s plane highlights Russia’s hybrid warfare in Europe
Short Summary: On August 31, 2025, GPS jamming forced European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane to divert and land in Bulgaria; NATO and EU officials blame Russia’s hybrid warfare campaign, highlighting escalating electronic warfare threats in Eastern Europe.
On August 31, 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane lost GPS navigation signals midair over Eastern Europe near Russian borders, forcing it to land using paper maps in Bulgaria. Bulgarian authorities confirmed the satellite GPS interference, which European officials and experts attribute to deliberate Russian jamming activity as part of a wider campaign of hybrid warfare including cyberattacks and undersea cable cuts. The incident is the most high-profile GPS disruption linked to Moscow to date and has raised security concerns across NATO and EU member states bordering Russia and Belarus. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed intensive efforts to counter these attacks, emphasizing the growing threat from Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Multiple EU countries have reported thousands of GPS interference cases, with hotspots traced to Russia’s Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg military areas. The event occurs amid strengthened Western countermeasures such as new satellite deployments, coastal monitoring stations, and enhanced flight security protocols. Analysts view the jamming as a testing tactic by Russia rather than a direct targeted attack on von der Leyen, yet it reflects Moscow’s expanding electronic warfare capabilities and intent to disrupt Western military and civilian navigation systems.
The article explicitly attributes GPS jamming targeted at von der Leyen’s plane to Russian hybrid warfare, detailing Moscow's deliberate interference and NATO/E.U. countermeasures underway, showing clear aggressor actions and alliance defense preparations.
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