Lithuania Accuses Moscow of Sustained GPS Provocations

Russia can falsify GPS signals deep inside Europe, within a radius of up to 450 kilometers from the Kaliningrad region. That's according to Lithuania's communications regulator, which says Moscow has greatly expanded its capacity for so-called "spoofing", the transmission of fake navigation signals.

The deputy head of the regulator, Darius Kuliešius, said the number of Russian antennas had increased from three to 36 since the beginning of the year. According to him, this is a "sustained Russian provocation against European security".

The disruption may affect Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, most of Poland as well as parts of Finland, Sweden and Belarus, according to Lithuanian estimates. Moscow has long denied similar accusations.

GPS-related incidents have also been recorded on European politicians' planes in the past. Last year, a Spanish military special carrying Defense Minister Margarita Robles had problems near Kaliningrad, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's plane also faced interference.

According to Lithuania, the jamming has intensified, especially during the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia. In the port city of Klaipėda, for example, the GPS-dependent online bus systems stop working during outages.

(reuters, bak)