"This is taken very seriously." Rutte reacts to the incident with the von der Leyen plane

NATO is taking "very seriously" the incident with the jamming of the GPS signal during the landing in Bulgaria of a plane with the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on board. The statement was made by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a visit to Luxembourg, reports The Associated Press.

According to him, NATO is working to prevent Russian jamming of civilian flights. Rutte's comments came after the plane with von der Leyen on board lost the ability to use GPS navigation in Bulgarian airspace.

The plane landed on Sunday, Bulgarian authorities said they suspect Russian interference.

"This is taken very seriously. I can assure you that we are working day and night to counter this, to prevent this and to make sure that they [the Russians] don't do it again," the NATO Secretary General said, without giving any details.

Rutte said the jamming was part of Russia's sophisticated "hybrid threats" campaign, which includes cutting undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, a plot to assassinate a German industrialist and a cyberattack on the National Health Service in the UK.

He added that jamming commercial aircraft could have catastrophic consequences.

• On March 14, 2024, The Times wrote that Russia may have jammed the satellite signal on a plane carrying then-U.K. Defense Secretary Shapps.
• On June 30, The Telegraph reported that Russia had jammed GPS on hundreds of British military flights.
• In early August 2025, Poland convened a Baltic Sea states summit over Russia's influence on GPS.