LAST UPDATE | 1 Sep 2025

A PLANE CARRYING the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen was hit by GPS jamming as it was readying to land in Bulgaria on Sunday.

The EU has accused Russia of being behind the incident. Media reports said that the aircraft’s pilots were forced to revert to paper maps to land the aircraft. 

European Commission spokeswoman Arianna Podesta told a press conference in Brussels this morning that the aircraft landed safely.

“We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming, but the plane landed safely in Bulgaria. 

“We have received information from the Bulgarian authorities that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia,” she said. 

GPS jamming has been a major issue near Kaliningrad – which is a Russian city exclave which is sandwiched between the border of Poland and Lithuania. Grant Shapps, a British politician was targeted in such an attack in 2024. 

This is one of the first reports of it happening further south and further away from Russia in Bulgaria.

Von der Leyen has been a fierce critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s war in Ukraine. She is currently on a four-day tour of the EU nations bordering Russia and its ally Belarus.

I’m here to reaffirm Europe’s solidarity with Lithuania.

Europe needs a strong Lithuania to protect our borders and our people.

That's why cohesion policy will remain at the heart of the EU budget.

So we continue to support both border security and strong livelihoods. pic.twitter.com/gIktaLOgZE

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 1, 2025

“This incident actually underlines the urgency of the mission that the president is carrying out in the front-line member states,” Podesta added.

The spokeswoman said that von der Leyen has seen “first hand the everyday challenges of threats coming from Russia and its proxies”.

“And, of course, the EU will continue to invest into defence spending and in Europe’s readiness even more after this incident,” she said.

The Bulgarian government confirmed the incident also in a statement.

“During the flight carrying European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to Plovdiv, the satellite signal transmitting information to the plane’s GPS navigation system was neutralised.

“To ensure the flight’s safety, air control services immediately offered an alternative landing method using terrestrial navigation tools,” it said.

With reporting from Press Association.