Sweden says Russia behind the GPS jump stuck over the Baltic Sea

Sweden has accused Russia of being behind a significant rise in GPS signaling, recorded over the Baltic Sea, provoking aviation concerns in the region.

The Swedish Transport Agency (Sta) said interruptions have increased in the last few years, but now they have become an almost daily event. It recorded 733 incidents so far in 2025, compared to 55 throughout 2023.

The agency said the source of the intervention was traced to the Russian territory and also affected shipping. Other European nations have accused Russia of being behind the restraint that Moscow denies.

The Sta report comes days after an airplane wearing Ursula von der Leyen was struck by intervention.

It is reported that pilots on the President of the European Commission had to land using paper cards, but they did it safely.

Andreas Holmgren, head of Sta aviation, has warned that the issue is “serious” and is a “risk of civil aviation safety”.

In addition to observing a huge increase in reports, he said that the staging cases have spread “both geographically and in scope, passing from initially limited to the eastern parts of Swedish airspace over international leads to Sweda land and waters.

Airlines operating in the Baltic region have reported tens of thousands of GPS traffic jams over the last few years. The Baltic States are booked from the Russian territory.

In June, Sweden and five other countries in the region – Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – raised the issue before the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), of which Russia is a Member State.

The ICAO Council has expressed “great concern about the situation and wants Russia to fulfill its international duties and to ensure that violations will stop immediately.”

However, interruptions in the Baltic Sea “have increased instead,” he added.

European governments and experts regularly blame Russia, claiming that such practices fit into the Kremlin’s suspected strategy to sow as a whole disorder and undermine European security.

Moscow regularly denies allegations in intervention or attacks against commercial aviation. There has not yet been established a proven link between Russia and the growth of GPS sting.

Von der Leyen’s aircraft headed to Bulgaria on Sunday, when her on -board telemetry was interrupted because of what a spokesman described as “screaming from Russia”.

The European Commission said the incident only intensifies its commitment to “increase our defense capabilities and support for Ukraine.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Financial Timeswho reports the suspect that his information is “incorrect”.

Bulgaria’s aviation authorities said there was a “noticeable increase” of incidents with GPS since the beginning of the full -scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine in 2022.

While planes can rely on other forms of navigation than GPS, congestion in the middle of the flight can increase the risk of collisions – either with other aircraft, or by making the pilot involuntarily fly in the ground, water or other obstacle.

But the UK Civil Aviation Authority has played the importance of GPS dulling, says Aircraft navigation systems do not rely solely on GPS, and therefore intervention should not affect their direct navigation.

He adds that intervention is mainly found near the conflict zones as a by -product of military activity, and not necessarily being a deliberate action.

The numbers of the STA for 2025 cover until August 28. Although they include both Swedish and non-Swedish Airlines, the agency warns that they are considered significant underestimation of the number of incidents reported, as airlines often report incidents of their own country’s aviation power.