By Euronews
Published on
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Russia is ramping up its GPS jamming operations against Lithuania, with pilots particularly affected by such interference, according to local media reports.
Pilots in Lithuania reported disruptions to their GPS communications on 1,022 occasions in June, up from just 46 times in the same month last year, the Baltic News Service (BNS) reported based on data provided by the air traffic control company Oro Navigacija.
This also marked a huge increase in recent months, as 585 incidents were recorded in May and 447 in April.
Darius Kuliešius, deputy chairman of Lithuania’s Communications Regulatory Authority (RRT), told LRT Radio that the regulator had identified more than 10 locations in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad “from where Russia is causing this interference”.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, nations located on the Baltic Sea have reported several incidents of suspected hybrid warfare by Moscow, including damage to undersea power cables, incidents of arson and cyberattacks.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Lithuania’s Transport Minister Eugenijus Sabutis told BNS that the data was “worrying” and said the issue also affected Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Sweden, Finland.
Estonia and Finland last year criticised Russia for GPS jamming in the region’s skies.
The EU must realise “that these interferences will not go away, that Russia and Belarus will continue to behave maliciously,” Sabutis said.
Last month, 13 EU countries — the Baltic states included — called on the European Commission to respond to interference with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) orgininating from Russia and Belarus.
Russia told global regulators that EU countries using navigation and broadcast satellites for both civil and military purposes, notably in support of Ukraine, could not protest if signals were jammed by Moscow, trade publication Space Intel Report wrote last week.
Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media has reportedly said that the country will attempt to avoid interference with non-military uses of GNSS.
UN agencies including the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recently issued a statement expressing “grave concern” about the rising cases of harmful interference.
The ICAO last month urged Russia to stop interfering with GNSS signals, saying that this posed a “serious threat” to passenger flights, especially in the Baltic Sea region.
