Despite Von Der Leyen Story Unraveling, Russia Accused Of Widespread GPS Jamming Over Baltic Sea

Swedish authorities on Thursday have alleged that Russia is behind a sharp rise in GPS interference over the Baltic Sea which has increasingly impacted aviation, creating a potentially dangerous situation for civilian travel in the region.

The Swedish Transport Agency announced a surge incidents involving disruptions to global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), such as GPS. It issued a figure of just 55 cases in 2023 to 733 so far this year.

“We’ve conducted long-term analyses and gathered extensive data. Our conclusion is that the interference originates from Russian territory,” the agency’s head of aviation, Andreas Holmgren, was cited in AFP as saying.

“This poses a serious threat to civil aviation, especially considering the scale, duration, and nature of the interference,” Holmgren added.

The Swedish agencies pointed to jamming and spoofing techniques – the latter which involves sending false location data. Media reports say the incidents were initially limited to the Scandinavian country’s eastern airspace over international waters, but now the interference has become broader.

These new major allegations come after Russia has vehemently denied it engaged in GPS jamming of a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as it prepared to land in Bulgaria on Sunday:

Bulgarian officials have denied claims they suspected Moscow of jamming the GPS of a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, days after the Commission cited Bulgarian authorities as suggesting the incident was “due to blatant interference from Russia.”

The country’s Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told parliament on Thursday that von der Leyen’s plane had not experienced “prolonged interference or jamming.”

In a statement made later the same day, Zhelyazkov said that even though no jamming had been detected by “ground instruments,” it didn’t exclude the possibility of “onboard devices” detecting jamming.

EuroNews and others have noted this is a major U-turn on the claims, making the whole episode highly suspect and dubious. The plane landed safely, but EU officials quickly blamed Russia for the alleged interference, and yet days later the whole story seems to be unravelling fast.

Did Von der Leyen and her team just completely fabricate it? The Bulgarian government as of Thursday is denying the entire basis of the claims:

“There is no need to investigate the situation, because these disturbances are neither hybrid nor cyber threats.”

According to the same report, “In an interview with Bulgarian channel bTV, Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Grozdan Karadjov denied that the government had submitted any information on the matter to the European Commission, contradicting the Commission’s assertion that Bulgarian authorities suspected the disruption was the result of the Kremlin’s hybrid warfare.”

Don’t expect the mainstream media to be quick to offer corrections or walk-backs…

A couple days ago, the FT hyped a “Russian active measures” hoax claiming Russia jammed the GPS on von der Layen’s plane. The story has already unraveled, but no correction from the FT. It all feels so Trump-1st termy. pic.twitter.com/LOzc1YnlTq

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) September 4, 2025

This could be another case of a media trend that we and others observed starting years ago – how Putin and Russia apparently seek to ‘weaponize everything’ – though most often, evidence for such claims are lacking.