A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was hit by radar jamming over Bulgaria in a suspected Russian operation, a spokesperson said Monday.
The plane landed safely in Plovdiv airport and von der Leyen will continue her planned tour of the European Union’s nations bordering Russia and Belarus, said the commission’s spokesperson Arianna Podestà.
“We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming,” said Podestà.
“We have received information from the Bulgarian authority that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia.”.
Von der Leyen, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s war in Ukraine, is on a four-day tour of the E.U. nations bordering Russia and its ally Belarus.
She said that von der Leyen has seen “firsthand the everyday challenges of threats coming from Russia and its proxies.”.
Bulgaria issued a statement saying that “the satellite signal used for the aircraft’s GPS navigation was disrupted. »