Russia accused of jamming GPS signal as EU chief's plane lands in Bulgaria [View all]
Source: CBS News/AP
September 1, 2025 / 8:53 AM EDT
Brussels — A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was hit by GPS jamming over Bulgaria in a suspected Russian operation, a spokesperson said Monday. The plane landed safely in Plovdiv airport and von der Leyen will continue her planned tour of the European Union's nations bordering Russia and Belarus, said the commission's spokesperson Arianna Podestà.
"We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming," Podestà said in a statement also shared separately with CBS News by a European Commission spokesperson. "We have received information from the Bulgarian authority that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia."
The Financial Times newspaper, which was the first to report the incident citing EU officials, said the GPS jamming forced the pilot to land the plane carrying von der Leyen using paper maps. Von der Leyen, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow's war in Ukraine, is on a four-day tour of the EU nations bordering Russia and its close ally Belarus.
"This incident actually underlines the urgency of the mission that the president is carrying out in the front-line member states," Podestà said. She said that von der Leyen has seen "firsthand the everyday challenges of threats coming from Russia and its proxies."
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-accused-of-jamming-gps-signal-as-eu-chiefs-plane-lands-in-bulgaria/
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