Sweden says Russia behind the GPS wave is blocking on the Baltic Sea

Sweden accused Russia of being behind a significant increase in cases of scrambling the GPS signal recorded on the Baltic Sea, which raises concerns for aviation in the region.

The Swedish Transport Agency (IT) has said that disturbances have increased in recent years, but have now become an almost daily event. He recorded 733 incidents so far in 2025, compared to 55 in all 2023.

The agency said the source of interference had been traced on Russian territory and also affected the shipment. Other European nations have accused Russia of being behind the scrambling, which Moscow denies.

The Sta report occurs a few days after an airplane carrying Ursula von der Leyen was affected by interference.

The pilots of the plane of the president of the European Commission should have landed with paper cards, but did so safely.

Andreas Holmgren, the Aviation Chief of the STA, warned that the question was “serious” and asked “a risk of security for civil aviation”.

In addition to seeing a massive increase in reports, he declared that the cases of scramble had spread “both geographically and in reach”, first passing to the eastern parts of Swedish airspace on international waters with Swedish land and waters.

Airlines operating in the Baltic region have reported tens of thousands of GPS jamming incidents in recent years. Baltic states are reserved by Russian territory.

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

The OACI Council has expressed “a great concern about the situation and requires Russia to fulfill its international obligations and guarantee that disturbances cease immediately”.

Despite this, the disturbances in the Baltic Sea region “have increased rather,” he added.

European governments and experts regularly blame Russia, saying that such practices correspond to an alleged Kremlin strategy to generally sow disorders and undermine European security.

Moscow regularly denies charges of interference or attacks on commercial aviation. No proven link has yet been established between Russia and the increase in the scrambling of GPS.

Von der Leyen’s plane went to Bulgaria on Sunday when his integrated telemetry was disrupted because of what a spokesman described as “a blatant interference from Russia”.

The European Commission said that the incident only strengthened its commitment to “accelerate our defense capacities and support for Ukraine”.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Financial Times, who had brought in the alleged scramble, that his information was “incorrect”.

The Bulgarian Aviation Authority said that there had been a “notable increase” of GPS incidents since the start of Russia’s invasion on the scale of Ukraine in 2022.

Although planes can rely on other forms of navigation than general practitioners, blurring it in half -voltage can increase the risk of collisions – either with other planes, or by involuntarily flying the soil, water or other obstacles.

But the UK Civil Kingdom Aviation Authority has played the meaning of the scrambling of the GPS, says that the navigation systems of the aircraft are not only based on GPS and that interference should not affect their direct navigation.

He adds that interference occurs mainly near conflict zones as by-product of military activity, rather than necessarily being a deliberate act.

The STA figures for 2025 are covered until August 28. Although they include both Swedish and non-Swedish airlines, the agency warns that they are considered significant underestimations of the number of incidents reported, as airlines often report incidents to the aviation authority of their own nation.