BRUSSELS (AP) — A aircraft carrying European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen was hit by GPS jamming over Bulgaria in a suspected Russian operation, a spokesperson mentioned Monday.
The aircraft landed safely in Plovdiv airport and von der Leyen will proceed her deliberate tour of the European Union’s nations bordering Russia and Belarus, mentioned the fee’s spokesperson Arianna Podestà.
“We are able to certainly affirm that there was GPS jamming,” mentioned Podestà. “Now we have obtained info from the Bulgarian authority that they think that this was as a consequence of blatant interference by Russia.”
Von der Leyen, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s battle in Ukraine, is on a four-day tour of the EU nations bordering Russia and its ally Belarus.
“This incident really underlines the urgency of the mission that the president is finishing up within the front-line member states,” Podestà mentioned.
She mentioned that von der Leyen has seen “firsthand the on a regular basis challenges of threats coming from Russia and its proxies.”
“And, after all, the EU will proceed to speculate into protection spending and in Europe’s readiness much more after this incident,” she mentioned.
Bulgaria issued an announcement saying that “the satellite tv for pc sign used for the plane’s GPS navigation was disrupted. Because the plane approached Plovdiv Airport, the GPS sign was misplaced.”
Von der Leyen was scheduled to deal with a information convention at 1430 GMT in Romania.
