Recent GPS signal disruptions affecting aircraft and ships near the Lithuanian seaport of Klaipėda are linked to Russia's efforts to shield its Kaliningrad exclave from potential airstrikes, Saulius Skvernelis, the speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, said on Tuesday.
Skvernelis warned that this problem will persist across the region as long as the Kremlin continues its war in Ukraine.
"This is related to the war in Ukraine. The Russians are protecting the Kaliningrad region from potential air attacks. This is not specifically intended to disrupt or harm our aircraft flying to Lithuania. It's just that the protection zone extends beyond the Kaliningrad region's borders, and the threat, the interference, is affecting our territory as well," the speaker told LRT TV.
Thirteen EU member states have called on the European Commission to respond to interference with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in EU countries.
In their joint letter to Brussels, the countries stressed that GNSS interference cases are not random incidents but systematic and deliberate action by the Russian and Belarusian regimes aimed at destabilising regional infrastructure, especially in the transport sector, the Lithuanian Transport Ministry said earlier on Tuesday.
"We can appeal to all EU countries and any institution, but it won't help as long as Russia uses this kind of electronic protection for its military sites to defend itself against Ukrainian strikes," Skvernelis said.
"We must force Russia to end the war and then this problem will simply go away," he added.
Data from Lithuania's flight management company Oro Navigacija (Air Navigation) show that the number of GPS interference reports from aircrews surged tenfold in January year-on-year, but declined in March.
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