Baltic Sea GPS disruptions to continue until Russia ends war, Lithuanian speaker warns
Disruptions to GPS signals in the Baltic Sea will persist as
long as Russia continues its war against Ukraine, Saulius Skvernelis, speaker
of Lithuania’s Seimas, said, as quoted by LRT.
Skvernelis cautioned that the problem will remain in the
region for as long as the Kremlin wages war in Ukraine.
“This is related to the war in Ukraine. The Russians are
protecting the Kaliningrad Oblast from potential air attacks. They are not
intentionally trying to disrupt our aircraft flying to Lithuania or to harm
them. But the protection zone extends beyond the Kaliningrad Oblast, and the
threats, the interference, also affect our territory,” he said.
Thirteen EU member states earlier urged the European
Commission to respond to the disruptions of global navigation satellite systems
across the bloc.
In a joint letter to Brussels, the countries emphasized that
GPS interference is not the result of isolated incidents, but rather systematic
and deliberate actions by the Russian and Belarusian regimes aimed at
destabilizing regional infrastructure, particularly in the transport sector.
“We can appeal to all EU countries and any institution, but
it won’t help as long as Russia uses such electronic defenses for its military
facilities to shield itself from Ukrainian strikes,” Skvernelis said.
He added that Western nations must force Russia to end the
war, and then “this problem will simply disappear.”
In November 2024, Reuters reported that Russia was jamming
satellite navigation signals, disrupting airport operations in Finland.
Bloomberg reported that Russia is using its Kaliningrad
Oblast, which borders Poland and Lithuania, as one of its bases for interfering
with the European Union’s satellite systems.
On Jan. 10, 2025, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock
accused Russia of threatening European security through cable sabotage,
disinformation campaigns, and GPS disruptions.
On Jan. 15, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Russia
was planning aerial terror attacks against his country and against airlines
worldwide. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed Tusk’s remarks as
“absolutely baseless.”
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